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Unique fighter breed cocks set to perish

The origin of the breed is not known
Known as ‘hansli’, it is mostly found in Kaptipada of Mayurbhanj district

Bhubaneswar: A unique species used in cock fights by tribals are set to perish with the Orissa Government getting ready to cull nearly nine lakh chicken in districts bordering West Bengal.

“The total number of the fighter breed of chicken could be about 12,000 including 10,000 cocks,” officer-in-charge of the Veterinary Officers Training Institute Ramakanta Mohapatra said, quoting a survey report conducted by it in 2004-05.

The origin of the breed is not known, but as per the owners they have been raising them since their forefathers’ time and are a pure breed. “No introduction of exotic and local germplasm has been made in the recent past knowingly to maintain the fighting qualities,” the survey report said.

Orissa’s Fisheries and Animal Resource Development Minister Golak Bihari Naik, who is from Mayurbhanj district, said the fighter cocks were the ’life and pride’ of a tribal family. Naik said a family possessing a number of fighter cocks was considered affluent and powerful in the tribal community.

After a cockfight, the winner took away the vanquished cock. It was generally eaten. So in a way almost all surviving cocks were ’bravehearts’, he said.

The species locally known as ‘hansli’, are mostly found in Kaptipada block of Mayurbhanj district.

Their number must have gone up since then and the breedable female chicken could now be more than 2,000, he said. PTI

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