After Feeding on Cotton Crop, 10 Peacocks Die

BHUBANESWAR/BERHAMPUR: Even as the State celebrates the Wildlife Week, serial death of peacocks in Ganjam’s Aska, where the national bird enjoys community protection, has shocked many. As many as 10 peacocks have died in two days after consuming crop from a cotton farm prompting the Forest Department to arrest the farmer. The incident occurred at Kerikerijola village in the foothills of Pakidi, a bald hill, under Sheragarh block. Villagers were shocked to see seven dead peacocks and informed Aska Forest Range office. A team rushed to the place and found three more birds in distress. Two of them died later at the range office where they were given treatment while another died on Tuesday morning. A local conservationist Samir Pradhan, who was conferred the Biju Patnaik Award by the State Government in 2005-06 for excellent work for protection of the national bird, said the number of affected peacocks could be more since the birds feed on the crop fields of the neighbouring villages. Aska Forest Range Officer Narayan Dora said search was being conducted in the hills to ascertain if more peacocks had died. The Pakidi hills and its neighbourhood are home to about 1,000 peacocks since they are never harmed by the local villagers. Problem started when G Sambasiva Rao, a man from Andhra Pradesh’s Guntur district, took up cotton cultivation after taking lease of 60 acre of fallow land near the Pakidi hills. The peacocks which feed on cotton leaves and seeds, are believed to have died since the crop was sprinkled with a pesticide called “Atom.”  “We are trying to ascertain if Rao had deliberately used the pesticide to keep the birds at bay or it was a regular crop protection practice. We have seized the pesticide from his house,” Dora said.  Villagers believe more deaths might have occurred over the last weekend. Amulya Upadhaya, who leads a community conservation group for protection of the blackbucks, alleged that at least 50 peacocks might have died over the last week. The vets found seeds and leaves of the cotton plants from the stomachs of peacocks on postmortem. The parts have been sent to Bhubaneswar for further examination.