A peacock at Pakidi in Ganjam. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 12: A fact-finding team from Vasundhara, a city-based organisation working for wildlife conservation, which visited Pakidi in Ganjam district following the death of 13 peacocks after consuming insects poisoned by pesticide-laced cotton crops, has suggested community-based conservation strategy for the peacocks of the area.

Traditionally, Pakidi is famous for peacocks and tourists from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh come here to have a look at the beautiful birds in the pre-monsoon period. But these days, only two or three birds are seen in a day in the nearby villages.

“The entire bird community might have migrated to the nearby hills after the deaths,’’ said Prasad Dash, a member of the team from Vasundhara.

Interestingly, Pakidi was among the few places that received the Biju Patnaik Prakriti Mitra Award for the outstanding contribution to the field of conservation by the local community and the birds died while the state was busy celebrating Wildlife Week.

Dash, an ecologist, said: “Across the country, there are numerous examples of areas that may not be designated as protected areas as per official records, but are rich in biodiversity because of substantial involvement of the local communities. So the concept of community reserve has gained acceptance since an amendment of the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 in 2002. Community reserves can provide legal support to the community conserved areas which are under private or community ownership.’’

Several community reserves are already present in Kerala and Punjab and three more are at the proposal stage.

Bijaya Mishra, another member of the team, said: “A decline has been noticed in people’s interest for protection because of several factors. While the number of the birds is increasing steadily and events of crop loss are also being reported regularly, there is no move from the authorities concerned to give any compensation to the victims. With increasing human population, the areas for the birds to roam freely are also decreasing. Once the area is designated as a community reserve, there can be proper planning of resources for the conservation strategy as the Wildlife Protection Act amendment also mandates a uniform management structure.’’

Regarding the total number of deaths of the birds in the area, the team has gathered information that though the official death figure was 13, villagers feared that more birds might have been died in other localities after consuming poisoned insects from the cotton fields.

A member of the fact-finding team said that copies of the report would be submitted to the forest department and the National Biodiversity Authority of India, New Delhi, for action.