Click to play videoJaipur: India's national bird now finds itself in trouble. 25 peacocks have been found dead in Bulandshaher near Ghaziabad. A spurt in peacock deaths has also got conservationists in Rajasthan worried.
In less than two weeks thirty peacocks have been found dead in Rajasthan.
Twenty-one peacocks have been found dead in Salodi village near Jodhpur and if that was not bad enough, nine more have been killed by poachers in Bundi village.
Says Jodhpur’s Deputy Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), B R Bhadu, "In this manner, due to poisoned seeds, so many peacocks dying together such an incident has not happened here earlier."
While illegal poaching of the bird continues for their feathers, some tribes in Rajasthan also kill the bird for its meat.
Another problem is that unlike tigers, there is no exact figure on the number of peacocks India has.
Recently the Prime Minister announced the need for a rapid nation-wide survey for the birds, a crucial step given their sharp decline across the states.
A recent survey has even suggested that at least 10 peacocks are killed in the state everyday!
In the past few months alone, at least 250 peacock deaths have been reported out of Rajasthan primarily in Bhilwara, Ajmer, Chittor and Jodhpur.
“Wildlife is nobody's baby, it hasn't got any priority, and we've been asking Chief Ministers to allocate this in their budget. It hasn't happened so far,” complained environmentalist Harsh Vardhan.
The spurt in peacock mortality in Rajasthan is alarming, but all the attention it has managed to invite from the government is what many would refer to as cosmetic measures like the peacock garden in Jaipur at a cost of about Rs 2 crores.
Ironically, the sculpted peacocks of the garden are now turning into grim reminders of the real bird.
With inputs from Sushil Kumar in Jaipur
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