The operation "is likely to end by Tuesday evening," Agricuture Minister Sharad Pawar told reporters on the sidelines of a Bureau of Indian Standards award function in New Delhi on Tuesday.
The animal husbandry department started the culling operation on Monday, he added. He blamed certain sections of the media for blowing a localised event out of proportion, which according to him led to a panic-like situation.
"It is wrong to say that bird flu has erupted across the country, which in fact happened within a radius of 10 km in the western region," he said.