Bahraich: A man in the Ramgaon area here was on Tuesday arrested for allegedly hunting a peacock and a peahen, an official said. The arrest was made by a joint team of forest department and police, the official said. Divisional Forest Officer Ajit Pratap Singh told PTI that the forest department had received information about the hunting of a peacock and a peahen on Tuesday afternoon.
On this, the officers and employees of the forest department along with the police team reached Mukeria village under the Ramgaon police station area, where a person named Hafiz Ali (60) was found with a dead peacock and a dead peahen in a sugarcane field. The DFO said that the carcasses of the dead birds were seized and the hunter was detained.
After interrogation and investigation, it was found that the pair was trapped by using a net. The accused has stated that he had killed the pair to eat them. He said that however, the actual reason for the death of the pair of birds will be known only after the post-mortem examination report. A panel of three veterinarians has been formed, which will conduct the post-mortem examination of the dead peacock and the dead peahen on Wednesday.
Singh said that police have arrested Hafiz Ali by registering a case against him in Ramgaon police station under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 on the charge of hunting birds. SHO of Ramgaon police station Alok Singh said that the arrested hunter will be presented in the court on Wednesday morning.
The DFO said that the national bird peacock is listed under the Schedule 1 in the category of highly protected wildlife. Peacocks have been kept in the Schedule-1 category like wildlife like tiger, leopard, elephants and wolf. He said that since the bird is listed in Schedule-1, hunting of peacocks has the highest punishment provision in the Wildlife Act as compared to other wildlife.
