My shop is almost 25-years-old and was set up by my father. Now he is old and ailing, so I have been managing it for several years. My other brothers were not interested in managing the shop so I took the reins over from my father.

My name is Tapas Das, I am one of the most popular poultry sellers in this market. People trusted my chcikens and eggs and my customers have been regulars for several years. On a normal day, I did not have a minute to rest as people would be clamouring all around the shop, waiting to be served. I had to keep six employees to handle the volume of clients. We used to sell 100 chickens at least in a day and I used to make at least 6000 rupees ($157) a day.

But all that seems like a dream now.

After bird flu panic struck the state, I have been rendered a pauper almost. People have stopped buying chicken. For the last two weeks I have been sitting around in my shop, not knowing what to do. I am trying to tell my regular customers that it is safe to eat chicken and eggs but most of them are passing me by with an apology.

We are telling people that Kolkata is not affected and that we don’t bring our supplies from the affected areas. We are eating chicken at home and we want to tell the people that it is perfectly safe to do so.

The price of chicken has gone down to Rs 30 (around $1) now while previously it was Rs 65 ($2.5) for a whole chicken.

I have heard that the government is also telling people that eating chicken and eggs is safe as long as it is boiled properly and above 70 degrees centigrade. However, panic has set in and people have totally stopped buying chicken now.

However, how can I blame them? They also have to be concerned about their family members and the way bird flu is spreading in the state, chicken must appear like poison to everyone. And who is going to buy poison with hard earned money?

I am in such dire straits that I am not being to pay my supplier on time. The only saving grace is that we are not picking up too much stock from the supplier and that the price has also fallen a lot. I have to be thankful that I can’t pick up much stock and so my debt is not mounting. Every week I end up owing my supplier around Rs 1000 ($30).

Until now I have been managing to pay him back, scrabbling for money here and there, but I don’t know what will happen in the future. I hope the supplier will understand that we are not able to sell properly and that I will pay him back as soon as sales pick up again.

I have not yet started thinking of what lies ahead. We are just trying our best to make our customers understand that it is safe to eat chicken. We are telling them that the eggs come from the southern state of Andhra Pradesh so they can safely eat that. However, since the prices have dropped many poor people, who previously couldn’t afford to eat chicken are buying it now.

We had to reduce the price of eggs too as no one was buying them. Before the outbreak we used to easily make a minimum of Rs 2000 ($52) a day. However, now it has come down drastically and most of the day’s earnings are going in employees salaries. There are six people who work for me and I have to pay them Rs 100 ($4) a day.

The poultry industry is being affected really badly. Many of my friends are farmers and they are also in trouble. The poultry market has fallen by almost 50 per cent. The price of chicken has fallen to Rs 30 (less than a dollar) per piece while the production cost itself is Rs 45 (around $2). How are we going to survive?

The government has been culling birds in the affected areas. I heard that they didn’t have much man power but now the central government has promised to help. I really hope and pray that the epidemic is controlled soon so that I can again build up my business.

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Tapas Das was talking to Sweeble correspondent Nilanjana Bhattacharya in Kolkata.

Twelve of West Bengal's 19 states have been affected by bird flu so far this year in what's being reported as India's third, and worst, outbreak of the disease. Government officials have been involved in large scale culling of birds - almost one million so far against a target of 2.2 million - in a bid to stop the disease spreading to densely-populated Kolkata.

Indian bird flu outbreak 'alarming'