Collapse of Natural Carcass Disposal
System—Kolkata Rotten Meat Incident:
The Insight Study
Sucharita Bhattacharyya, Souvick De, Shilajit Dey and Anwesh Bhowmick
Abstract Rapid urbanization with human-altered natural conditions results not only
in proliferation of infrastructures but includes pollution and generalized habitat
destruction as well. This loss in biodiversity potentially leads to the disappearance
of natural processes. As an example, the disruption in regulatory ecosystem services
provided by the vultures, world’s most efficient scavenger species by removing the
dead animals is worth mentioning at this point. Their precipitous decline over past
few decades has speeded up largely and become alarming because of their consumption of carcasses treated with man-made anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac, identified lethal for them in 2003. These affect their long-term mutual relationship with
human globally. The disappearance of vultures whose metabolism is a true dead-end
for pathogens poses a serious challenge in the management of natural dead animal
disposal system beyond urban boundaries. This has allowed additionally some alien
species of deadly disease carrier to grow in population, contributing indirectly to
thousands of human deaths every year. The lacuna in developing equally efficient
municipal carcass disposal system and the gross failure in organized supervision of
its ongoing processes have encouraged a new social change. The notorious activities
of greedy people noticeably used this gap and initiated the practice of supplying
dumped dead animal‘s meat from Kolkata to several food chains. The growing fastfood culture is found largely to be based on this rotten meat to massacre the masses
as a slow poison inviting toxoplasmosis of millions of non-veg people countrywide
and abroad for the last ten years or so. India being a poor country, the masses are subjected to malnutrition and starvation, so this free-market ambush spreads out beyond
cities very fast. Proper supervision in every step of carcass disposal systems along
S. Bhattacharyya (B) · S. De · S. Dey · A. Bhowmick
Guru Nanak Institute of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology Sodepur,
Panihati, Kolkata 700114, India
e-mail: Sucharita_jiss@rediffmail.com
S. De
e-mail: souvickde1998@gmail.com
S. Dey
e-mail: shilajitdey14@gmail.com
A. Bhowmick
e-mail: anwesh98@gmail.com
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020
S. K. Ghosh (ed.), Solid Waste Policies and Strategies: Issues, Challenges
and Case Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1543-9_4
35
System—Kolkata Rotten Meat Incident:
The Insight Study
Sucharita Bhattacharyya, Souvick De, Shilajit Dey and Anwesh Bhowmick
Abstract Rapid urbanization with human-altered natural conditions results not only
in proliferation of infrastructures but includes pollution and generalized habitat
destruction as well. This loss in biodiversity potentially leads to the disappearance
of natural processes. As an example, the disruption in regulatory ecosystem services
provided by the vultures, world’s most efficient scavenger species by removing the
dead animals is worth mentioning at this point. Their precipitous decline over past
few decades has speeded up largely and become alarming because of their consumption of carcasses treated with man-made anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac, identified lethal for them in 2003. These affect their long-term mutual relationship with
human globally. The disappearance of vultures whose metabolism is a true dead-end
for pathogens poses a serious challenge in the management of natural dead animal
disposal system beyond urban boundaries. This has allowed additionally some alien
species of deadly disease carrier to grow in population, contributing indirectly to
thousands of human deaths every year. The lacuna in developing equally efficient
municipal carcass disposal system and the gross failure in organized supervision of
its ongoing processes have encouraged a new social change. The notorious activities
of greedy people noticeably used this gap and initiated the practice of supplying
dumped dead animal‘s meat from Kolkata to several food chains. The growing fastfood culture is found largely to be based on this rotten meat to massacre the masses
as a slow poison inviting toxoplasmosis of millions of non-veg people countrywide
and abroad for the last ten years or so. India being a poor country, the masses are subjected to malnutrition and starvation, so this free-market ambush spreads out beyond
cities very fast. Proper supervision in every step of carcass disposal systems along
S. Bhattacharyya (B) · S. De · S. Dey · A. Bhowmick
Guru Nanak Institute of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology Sodepur,
Panihati, Kolkata 700114, India
e-mail: Sucharita_jiss@rediffmail.com
S. De
e-mail: souvickde1998@gmail.com
S. Dey
e-mail: shilajitdey14@gmail.com
A. Bhowmick
e-mail: anwesh98@gmail.com
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020
S. K. Ghosh (ed.), Solid Waste Policies and Strategies: Issues, Challenges
and Case Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1543-9_4
35