Pakur, Jul 8: About 50 bovines, locked in the room of an abandoned school building in Jharkhand's Pakur district, died due to suffocation, police said on Friday.
The incident happened in Chilgo village in Amrapara block of the district, they said.
"The villagers used to keep their bovines in the room of an abandoned primary school building in small numbers. On Thursday night, around 50 bovines were locked in the 150 sqft room. In the morning, 48 bovines were found dead, while a calf is alive," Block Development Officer (BDO) Kumar Devesh Dwivedi said.
Prima facie, it seems that the bovines died due to suffocation as about 50 of them were locked in a small room, Block Animal Husbandry Officer Farhat Jabbar said.
"There were two windows in the room, but both were closed. There was no ventilation," he said.
Villagers have been keeping their bovines in the school building for years due to shortage of space at the houses, officials said.