Eleven peafowls found dead in Jalandhar forest

Nine peahens and two peacocks were found dead at Laddowal forest in Punjabs Jalandhar District.

Loddowal (Jalandhar), Dec 27 : Nine peahens and two peacocks were found dead at Laddowal forest in Punjab's Jalandhar District.

The officials noticed a dead peacock initially in the Lodowal wildlife reserve area, and carried further search operation.

"We saw one dead peacock when I and forest guard Jasveer Singh were patrolling. After that we carried a search operation in the whole jungle area and found a total of dead nine peahens and two peacocks. We then informed higher officials and brought those birds in the hospital for postmortem," said Pritpal Singh, Assistant Forest Officer (AFO) of Ludhiana.

All the dead birds were taken to a close-by veterinary hospital in Ludhiana, but were later referred to the Regional Disease Diagnostic Research Centre in Jalandhar for further investigation.

Though the immediate cause of the deaths is not known, the birds have been sent for postmortem.

"With full precaution, we are sending all these birds to our regional laboratory RDDL (Regional Disease Diagnostic Research Centre) in Jalandhar for examination," said J.K. Uppal, a veterinarian.

The report is expected on Thursday.

Besides natural factors, destruction of habitats, poaching and contamination of food, are severely hampering the population of the bird.

Peacock is the national bird of India and known for beautiful feathers.

Peacock population is higher in the arid zone of Rajasthan, where in spite of their destroying crops, they are not killed since some divinity is attached to the birds.

Peacock is the vehicle of Shanmukha, son of Lord Shiva and its feathers are associated with Lord Krishna.

Peacock feathers are collected and sold as these birds shed them frequently. Fans and dainty broom sticks are prepared from these feathers.

In ancient days, tribals like Bhils wore apparels made of such feathers. Even today, these play important part in tribal dances.

ANI