Duplicate ducks crowding Kuttanad for Easter

KOCHI/ALAPPUZHA: If you are queuing up to buy your favourite Kuttanadan duck for Easter, think twice.
Chances are that the so-called ‘Kuttanadan Tharavu’ was actually bred in Tamil Nadu.
Come Easter and the demand for Kuttanadan duck mounts. Traders from Tamil Nadu and Kerala cash in on it by hoodwinking customers.
Ducks from Tamil Nadu are taken all the way to the interiors of Alappuzha where they are unloaded in water bodies near paddy fields and later sold as ‘Kuttanadan Tharavu’.
“The hatchery-bred ducks from Tamil Nadu tagged as ‘Kuttanadan’ are sold at prices between `170 and `200 that goes up during Easter. Actually they cost much less than country ducks,” says Sasi, a farmer from Kuttanad.
The ducks are mostly sold on the Alappuzha-Changanassery Road and usually bought by people who head for Kottayam and Pathanamthitta.
The locals can discern the difference and generally keep off them.
The meat and bones of Kuttanadan duck are harder and tastier than the hatchery-bred ones, says a farmer.
“It’s likely that many of the Kuttanadan ducks sold in nearby districts of Alappuzha are also from Tamil Nadu. I have followed many-a-truck bearing Tamil Nadu registration with ducks all the way to Alappuzha on my trips to Changanessery in the wee hours. Though duck eggs from Tamil Nadu are marked and sold cheaper, the ducks are not,” says Harindran, a Kochiite.
“My market research reveals that ducks from Tamil Nadu are sold under the Kuttanadan label,” says Abhilash V, who has been conducting market surveys on poultry and meat.
Director of Animal Husbandary Department R Vijayakumar says he would look into the issue. “The government policy is to conserve traditional products. This cannot be allowed,” he says.
The ducklings are transported to paddy fields in other parts of the state and outside for feeding and brought back after they are big enough, he says.
“Even the country pearl spots and prawns of Kerala have duplicates from Andhra Pradesh and labelled  as ‘Kuttanadan karimeen’ and ‘konchu’,” farmers add.