| The ministry of health and the department of animal husbandry, which have been issuing advertisements in the national media exhorting people to start consuming chicken, appear to have egg on their face with news of the bird flu resurfacing again, this time in Jalgaon in Gujarat, 140 km east of Nandurbar in Maharashtra, where the first episode surfaced. However, a combination of Holi and a gastroenteritis outbreak ensured that while the news was on the front pages, the impact has been limited so far this week. |
| The bird flu resurfacing in country got front-page placement in all English and Marathi newspapers published from Mumbai, but the stories were not given as much prominence as the first time around. For one, no English or Marathi newspapers were published on Wednesday due to the Holi holiday and the story of the bird flu first broke out on Tuesday evening. |
| Then as gastroenteritis hit the city, bird flu in Jalgaon became a distant nightmare. Gastroenteritis has proven to be more deadly as it has already claimed two lives and nearly 100 persons have been hospitalised. The stories related to the gastroenteritis were given relatively greater prominence by both English dailies such as The Times of India, Hindustan Times and DNA as well as Marathi dailies such as Sakal, Loksatta and Maharashtra Times. Then on the same day, another tragedy struck the city. While most of the city was busy in celebrating Holi, five Holi revelers got drowned on two beaches of the city. This story was also given front-page treatment by the city newspapers. |
| The resurgence of bird flu in Maharashtra was reported in detail on the front pages of the three Kannada newspapers "" Kannada Prabha, Praja Vani and Vijaya Karnataka. All the three newspapers followed up with complete stories in the inside national pages on what steps the government is taking to avoid the spread of this flu. In the following days, all the newspapers reported developments on this story in the inside pages. None of the newspapers had an edit devoted to this issue. |
| In the north, Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar had a front-page report on the bird flu, giving details of Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar's statement in Parliament on the matter. |
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