The Board has taken this action after residents filed complaint of growing house-fly menace in their locality due to the presence of poultry farms.

“We have asked poultry farms to manage poultry effectively, but the farms owners have made no attempts to improve their practices,” HSI-India official said.

The shift towards industrial farm animal production has increased existing waste management problems, with more animals being intensively confined in fewer and more crowded facilities.

Poorly managed animal wastes from these facilities contaminate water and air with harmful chemicals, pathogens and particulate matter, and often attract infestations of flies to the surrounding area, the group said in a statement.

Chronic exposure to such unhygienic conditions can have serious negative implications for human and animal health, the statement adds.

HIS-India has said that they have launched a campaign to end the intensive confinement of egg-laying hens in India.

India is the third largest producer of eggs in the world and more than 200 million hens are confined in battery cages across the country where the floor space allowed per bird is not more than a single A4 sheet of paper, the group adds.

Earlier this year, Punjab and Haryana High Court had also issued a notice to the Indian government, the Punjab and Haryana governments, the Poultry Federation of India and the Animal Welfare Board of India to phase out battery cages.

HSI-India, along with its partner organisations, is working to improve farm animal welfare and sustainability in the poultry industry.