Alwar (Rajasthan), April 19: A sudden rise of the death of peacocks has been observed in the Sariska Tiger Reserve. In the past two weeks a lot of peacocks have been found dead. Officials are looking into the cause of this surge in deaths. A post-mortem was done on the dead peacocks and the results showed it was some liver infection.

The officials are further investigating into the cause of what could have resulted in the liver infection. A possibility of poisoning the birds has been dismissed by veterinarian. “The peacocks have not been poisoned”, said Veterinary Doctor, Saubhagya Deep. The national bird in the past has been a target of poachers. The peacocks are poached for their feathers, meat and skin and a case was registered in last year in the Bhilwara district in Rajasthan. There are a lot of peacocks found in parts of Rajasthan and in 2016, almost 200 peacocks were poached in just the Bundi district. The rising number of peacock deaths are thus an obvious concern for Forest officials and conservationists.

Check the video which talks about the cause of mass death of peacocks:

In some parts of the country, where peacocks enter the farms and can damage the crops, the birds are poisoned! The population of peacocks may not be in the endangered category as yet but if the surge in deaths continue then the time won't be too far. Peacocks usually migrate to different lands because of the encroachment issues and being in the vicinity of people, they become a target of the poachers. At a time, 15 peacocks were reported dead due to strangulation in Rajasthan a year ago.

Although the recent case in Sariska Reserve cites an infection to the birds, it is definitely a cause of concern to look into. The infection could be bacterial, fungal or through the food. Had it been a poisoning case, even other birds in the vicinity could have fallen prey to it.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 19, 2018 09:25 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).