Peacocks died of heatstroke

NASHIK: The forest department has confirmed that the 13 peacocks died due to heatstroke last week in Nandgaon, a drought-prone region around 110 km from Nashik. The dead birds were spotted near Nandgaon-Manmad railway track by locals, who informed the officials concerned.
The peacocks were suspected to have died due to extreme heat on March 27. The carcasses were sent for postmortem analysis, which confirmed the case of death as sunstroke.The report has been forwarded to the principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF) in Nagpur couple of days ago asking them to make provision for tankers.
“We have sent the postmortem report to the PCCF along with a proposal for tankers to fill the waterholes. We are currently hiring water tankers to fill the dry waterholes. Some NGOs have also offered volunteered to fill the waterholes,” said Arvind Patil, chief conservator of forests (territorial), Nashik Circle.
He said the dry regions of Nandgaon and Yeola have a large number of waterholes but filling them is a problem due to water shortage. The forest department has to bring water in tankers from faraway places to fill the waterholes but even this was not proving sufficient with the onset of summer. Locals had complained of lack of facilities for the animals and birds in this region.
“There are around 200 peacocks in this region. We have more than 50 waterholes, some are natural and some manmade. The ones that are natural have water in them but the manmade ones go dry in summer,” said a forest official.
The forest official said they were regularly filling the waterholes but the recent unseasonal rain had filled the waterholes to a great extent. “The sudden rise in temperature in the past few days could have caused the sunstroke,” said the official.