Once considered a hub of chicken and egg business, Gurgaon in the national capital region, has lost poultry business to areas in the interior of Haryana bordering Rajasthan, according to Hindustan Times. From around 250 small and big poultry farms in Gurgaon in 1960s and 1970s, the satellite town is today left with not more than 40 farms, Ricky Thaper, Treasurer of Poultry Federation of India (PFI).

In a bid to cash in on soaring land prices in Gurgaon in 1990s with the boom in real estate business, many poultry owners of the city sold their land at a high rate and purchased bigger areas in interiors of the state like Jajjhar, Bhiwani and Narnaul, about 100km from Gurgaon bordering Rajasthan, Mr Thaper, himself in poultry trade in the town, said.

Some left the trade to enter into more profitable business like property dealing, he said.

So, in place of Gurgaon, the areas bordering Rajasthan have now become nerve centre of broiler and egg production and supply to the national capital.

Haryana and Rajasthan are the leading supplier of chicken to the national capital which runs into several lakhs while major portion of egg, a cheap source of protein, comes to Delhi from Punjab and Haryana, traders said.

Tracing history, Mr Thaper said poultry started on a small scale in Gurgaon in late 1960s and early 1970s where ex-government employees of Delhi adopted poultry as vocation after retirement. They were taught scientific poultry farming and given training at government Poultry Farm in Satbari, Delhi.

They purchased land in Gurgaon, adjoining Delhi, to build proper sheds for raising poultry birds for eggs and meat.

In the late 1990s, the scenario started changing, when land prices soared, with the construction of residential colonies and factories. Among those stayed back in Gurgaon, Bajaj Poultry Farm with more than one lakh layers is a leading name. Its proprietor, Sanjay Bajaj, decided to stay in Gurgaon and take advantage of the opportunity offered by food malls, that come up all over the city.

Sanjeev Gupta, owner of leading Khushboo Poultry said: "Facing erratic power supply and other infrastructural bottlenecks poultry is no longer a profitable business in Gurgaon. Let's see how long we can continue in the trade."