Fwd: Peacock Killing in Gurdaspur District in Punjab

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Peacock is National Bird of India.Wildlife officials are totally indifferent to

protect these Beautiful creatutures.Abou One year Back aSubdivisional Magistrate

of Punjab state was nabbed while hunting Peacocks.He was bailed out on the same

night even the chargesheet has not been framed against him,by the wildlife

officials of Punjab state in India.It is apprehended that he may go scotfree.

 

Many persons are involved in killing Peacock for its meat or feathers,but ill

equipped and ill trained wildlife officials do not take exemplery action,this in

turn do not desist poachers.here is a news item in English daily The Tribune:

Peacocks continue to perish

This time four die in Batala

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

 

Chandigarh, May 26

In a shocking incident, four peacocks have been found dead along the Aliwal

canal area, about 8 km from Batala in Gurdaspur in Punjab(India). Two of them

were recovered in a miserable state - their feathers ripped off from their

bodies.

 

The case surfaced yesterday when the villagers living along the forested canal

track dared the poachers who, they claim, were plucking the feathers of the

birds before they escaped. Migrant hunters have been active in this belt, which

abounds in partridges, rabbits and peacocks.

 

Incidentally, when the Punjab Wildlife Department was informed of the death of

the peacocks yesterday, one of the birds was alive. It, however, succumbed to

injuries at an animal husbandry centre in Batala today.

 

It is also reliably learnt that feathers were found scattered on the spot of

peacock deaths. And though the locals maintain the feathers belonged to at least

10 dead peacocks that may have been killed over a period of time, Wildlife

Department officers feel otherwise.

 

To begin with, they say the birds did not die due to hunting, although they

extend no plausible explanation of the de-skinning of peacocks. Mr Jasmel Singh,

District Forest Officer, Pathankot, told The Tribune the birds had been sent for

a post mortem to Batala and that the reports confirmed they did not die due to

hunting.

 

Initially Mr Jasmel Singh said the birds could not have been poisoned. Later, he

said the chances could not be ruled out. “This is cauliflower sowing season. So

the seeds could have been infected. But the birds could also have died due to a

disease or a snake bite,” he said.

 

A snake biting all the birds together seems implausible, so does a disease

striking all of them simultaneously. Also, these assumptions don’t explain these

facts - if four birds died of a disease at the same time, which disease was it

and what measures has the Forest Department taken to ensure the disease does not

kill more birds; if the birds had not been hunted, why had their feathers been

plucked out; if there were no hunters (though the villagers claim there were)

how did the birds die when the weather was not hostile and when no poisonous

substance was recovered from the site.

 

Even the postmortem report acquired from a local veterinary centre can be

objected to, given the poor credibility some such reports have had in the past.

In the case involving the alleged peacock killing by a former Pathankot SDM,

Hoshiarpur Veterinary Hospital played a dubious role. Finally, the Wildlife

Institute of India, Dehradun confirmed the birds died due to gun shots.

 

Even in the Batala case, experts insist the Wildlife Department should send the

birds to Dehradun, if at all they wish to ascertain the real cause of deaths.

 

(tribuneindia.com/2005/20050527/Punjab.htm#5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr.Sandeep K.Jain

India Matrimony: Find your life partneronline.