Efforts on to protect peacocks in Ganjam district

Administration has proposed a joint effort by Revenue, Forest and Agriculture Departments for protection of peacocks in jungles near Pakidi hill in Ganjam district.

It may be noted that use of pesticide in a cotton field led to the death of 13 peacocks in Pakidi area about a fortnight back. It was a shock for the villagers of the area as since long they are involved in protection and conservation of the national bird. Although, till now, no enumeration has been done, it was assessed that there may be around 3,000 peacocks in the Pakidi forest.

Ganjam district Collector Kishen Kumar held a meeting regarding protection of these peacocks at Shergarh. The meeting was attended by president of local Peacock Protection Committee (PPC) Samir Pradhan, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Ramesh Sethi, Shergarh Block Development Officer (BDO) D. Singh, local officers of agriculture and veterinary departments. In this meeting it was decided that forest and agriculture department would jointly prepare an action plan for conservation of peacocks in the area so that interest of peasants may not get hampered.

Promotion of bio-agriculture to reduce use of chemical pesticides was also point of discussion in this meeting. It was decided to hold awareness building camps in villages of the area to promote use of bio-fertilisers and bio-pesticides for agriculture in the area. Plans were made to build up water tanks on the foot hill of Pakidi hill to provide water source to the peacocks of the area. The issue of stone crushers that have become major menace for the peacocks living in the area also came up for discussion. It may be noted that local villagers united under the PPC with the help of forest department have played exemplary role in the protection of the peacock habitat in the area. Peacocks of the area are also quite friendly with the human populace of the area. Villagers of Sobhachandpur, Kerikerijhola, Ambuabadi, Bharatapalli, Kirtipur, Narendrapur, Chermaria and Nuagaon etc are involved in this peacock conservation work protect and save the national bird on an area of around 917 hectares around the Pakidi hill.

Efforts of these villagers who have got united under the PPC were honoured through the Biju Patnaik memorial award for wild life protection in 2006.

Source: The Hindu