Coimbatore : With the Human-Animal Conflict largely being debated nationwide both inside and outside parliament, a slowly emerging conflict between humans and the country’s national bird, the Indian Peafowl (Pavo cristatus), is resulting in the brutal poisoning of the birds in the country.
The bird protected under Schedule – I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, is dying in large numbers (more than 500 between 2011 and 2017) across the country due to poisoning.
Coimbatore : With the Human-Animal Conflict largely being debated nationwide both inside and outside parliament, a slowly emerging conflict between humans and the country’s national bird, the Indian Peafowl (Pavo cristatus), is resulting in the brutal poisoning of the birds in the country.
Roaming around the farmlands close and far away from forests, the birds that have taken a permanent residence in open fields finding food in farmlands come into conflict with humans who poison the birds either indirectly or directly for various purposes.
According to a paper titled Incidences of mortality of Indian peafowl (Pavo cristatus) due to pesticide poisoning in India and accumulation pattern of chlorinated pesticides in tissues of the same species collected from Ahmadabad and Coimbatore, as many as 35 poisoning cases were identified in the country between January 2011 and March 2017, in which 14 are from Tamil Nadu.
The report reveals that approximately 585 peafowl were poisoned in the country during the period including 291 birds from Tamil Nadu, which amounts to 50 per cent of the incidents recorded by the researchers who carried out the study. In of the incidents at Palladam in Tirupur District, more than 50 peafowl were killed in 2017.
“Due to cost and lack of analytical facilities and delayed information, only very few cases of suspected poisoning are confirmed in India. Common reasons for poisoning birds are to eliminate damage causing species, to be used as traditional medicines and for wildlife products. Sometimes, birds are killed as they provide clues on poaching activities too,” read the report.
The study has also focussed on indirect poisoning wherein the birds are exposed to excess pesticide through the crops they feed on. Of the 20 peafowl carcasses the team had conducted a post mortem on, all of them have had accumulated one or more pesticide residues in their tissues.
“Though the samples do not indicate cases of deliberate poisoning, we cannot rule it out. In a recent case near Sulur last week, more than five peafowl had fallen prey to rodenticide poison that was mixed with rice as bait for hen and dogs in a farmland. We have also observed cases where peafowl had died eating poison that was set up for rodent,” said a researcher from Coimbatore on conditions of anonymity.
She further stated that despite being killed a vast rate, the threat it could pose to the population could not be ascertained because of lack of research. “Many incidents go unrecorded and it is easy for the miscreants to hide the carcasses, making it difficult. And most of the incidents occur in remote areas,” she informed.
In the recent incident in Sulur, foresters failed to reach the spot in time and like other cases, the miscreants escaped without punishment of any sort. With the birds coming into frequent conflict with people roaming in farmlands, only stringent implementation of law could avoid bird mortality.
The report claims that ill effects of pesticides on wildlife, particularly birds have been an ongoing concern. It also points out at several species of birds that have either almost disappeared in totality or their population crashed drastically because of poisoning in India.
“Spot-billed Pelican whose population plummeted from 2000 to 330 within a span of 30 years in Karnataka; declining breeding population of Sarus Crane from 27 pairs during 1973 to six pairs during 1990 and two pairs during 2015 in Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur, Rajasthan; unsuccessful breeding of Himalayan Grey-headed Fish Eagle at Corbett National Park in Uttarkhand and catastrophic population decline in Gyps vultures across south Asia are a few examples,” reads the report.