Peacock found dead in Gurugram locality

Gurugram, August 1

In what has brought the Wildlife Department on its toes, a peacock was found mysteriously dead in the Park View drive in DLF, Phase 5, on Saturday morning.

While the incident happened two days ago, the department is yet to clarify the cause of the death.

“Yes, we were called by the DLF authorities. The postmortem has been conducted, but so far, we have no evidence on any foul play. I was away for the past two days, but will visit the spot along with a team,” said Wildlife inspector Rajesh Chahal. Though the department is yet to confirm, reports were doing rounds that the bird was killed after being hit by an overspeeding vehicle. A special team of the Wildlife Department will visit the spot tomorrow and carry out investigation.

On being contacted, DLF issued a statement saying, “The peacock’s body was found on Saturday morning by our team. We immediately informed the Forest Department and the body was handed over to them.”

Last year in July, a male peacock was killed by an overspeeding car in the same area.

A lot of hue and cry was raised over the security of these birds found on the stretch. The Wildlife Department had then announced sensitisation and awareness drives for residents on slow driving. However, nothing much was done.

Peacock is listed under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, as it is the National Bird of India. Officials said killing a peacock was a serious offence that could attract a prison sentence of three to seven years or a fine of up to ?25,000 or both.