Peacock deaths sparked alarm in Karnataka’s Hanumanthapura village on Monday after farmers found twenty carcasses—seventeen female and three male—scattered across farmland near a stream.
The cause of death remains a mystery, informed forest officials, who rushed to the site after villagers alerted them.
“The carcasses have been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory. The exact cause of death will be known only after the lab results are in,” officials said according to NDTV.
The peacock, India’s national bird, is protected under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act.
The death of the peacocks comes close on the heels of two other wildlife mortality events in Karnataka.
On July 2, 20 monkeys were found dead along the Kandegala-Kodesoge road near Gundlupet in Chamarajanagar district. Local residents discovered suspicious bags near the bodies early that morning and informed the forest department.
A rapid response team including forest officials, veterinarians, and sniffer dogs arrived soon after, who found two monkeys alive and rushed to a veterinary hospital in Gundlupet for treatment.
Authorities suspected poisoning. “The monkeys may have been killed elsewhere and dumped at the site to avoid detection,” officials noted. Post-mortems were ordered, and CCTV footage from the area is under review to determine responsibility.
In June, the Male Mahadeshwara Hills Wildlife Sanctuary witnessed the “unnatural death” of a tigress and her four cubs. Forest minister Eshwar Khandre ordered an investigation after their carcasses were found in the Meenyam forest area, under the Hoogyam range.
According to forest officials, the tigress had killed a cow and dragged the carcass into the forest. It is suspected that villagers, in retaliation, poisoned the cow meat. “After she and her cubs partially ate the meat, they likely died of poisoning,” said one official to PTI.
The area was sealed off, declared a protected zone, and standard scenes of crime protocols were invoked within a 500-meter radius to gather evidence.
While the deaths remain under investigation, the string of recent death of peacocks in Hanumanthapura, monkeys in Gundlupet, and tigers in Male Mahadeshwara Hills raise larger concerns about wildlife safety and habitat overlap in the state.
