Peacock succumbs to dog bites, govt apathy

A peacock, rescued by an East of Kailash resident from a stray dog on Monday, succumbed to serious injuries it suffered due to dog bites.

A peacock, rescued by an East of Kailash resident from a stray dog on Monday, succumbed to serious injuries it suffered due to dog bites.

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The peacock, which was at the Charity Birds Hospital in Chandni Chowk died late on Tuesday evening.

“The bird was seriously injured and it seems even the stitches it endured could not take care of the deep injury,” said Pramod Jain, hospital manager. The avian had undergone a prolonged operation at a vet’s clinic before being kept at the bird hospital. It was buried on Tuesday evening near the Loha Pul on Yamuna river, with almost five kg of salt so as to accelerate the melting of the body, Jain added.

Sanjay Verma, a power project consultant from East of Kailash, had saved the bird from a stray dog while on a morning walk on Monday. The stray dog had attacked the peacock and bitten off a huge chunk of flesh off the national bird’s back.

Verma had then taken the peacock to a veterinarian in Saket, where the bird underwent an operation for two hours and got 40 stitches.

After the operation, when Verma and his friend Deepak Tanwar took the bird to the National Zoological Park, the zoo staff did not entertain them. Tanwar said, “Had the zoo officials kept the peacock, may be it’s life would have been saved.”

Verma said, “It would have been much better if the bird had survived. I will continue to keep a watch and save another bird if needed.”

DM Shukla, chief conservator of forests, Delhi said, “Habitat protection for peacocks in urban areas does pose a real problem.”

The authorities can take action only against humans trying to poach or kill the bird, Shukla said adding, “but with stray dogs, there is hardly anything that we can do.”