Villagers didn’t know whom to contact

Despite being the National Bird, protected under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act-1972, the deaths of peacocks at Hasanpur village has brought to the fore the lack of awareness among people in dealing with such cases. Deevakar Anand reports.

Despite being the National Bird, protected under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act-1972, the deaths of peacocks at Hasanpur village has brought to the fore the lack of awareness among people in dealing with such cases.

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The villagers claimed that they couldn’t reach the local veterinary doctor whom they had been calling up since Sunday. The doctors finally arrived on Monday and administered first aid to the dying peacocks.

While they were able to save two of them, they had no information about whom to contact to transport the birds to hospitals.

“I’m doing my best to save them by administering antibiotics. Beyond this, I can only wait for orders from higher officials or the wildlife department,” said Dr Punita, a veterinary doctor who was the first to reach the spot.

HT raised the issue with the wildlife authorities and sought their help to rescue the sick birds and conduct postmortem on the dead ones.

Two peacocks died in an hour as valuable time was lost as wildlife officials discussed procedural modalities of their transportation and postmortem.

“The local police could have initiated measures and called the doctors and wildlife authorities,” said Dr Vinod Sharma, Jeevashram Veterinary Hospital in Delhi.

Meanwhile, a few peacocks were reportedly buried by the villagers though only the wildlife department is authorised to do so.

An FIR has been registered to probe any foul play.