“Man-Peafowl Conflict”-An Assessment in the Cultivated Crop lands of Kumbakonam Region of Tamil Nadu, India

Introduction

Galliformes species are useful indicators of environmental quality and the assessment of their status is essential for management purposes [1]. The Indian Peafowl Pavo cristatus also known as the Blue Peafowl was declared as the National bird of India during 1963 due to its ‘flagship’ value found on its glorious position in mythology and its widespread distribution and grandeur and comes in Schedule-I of the Indian Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972. The Indian Peafowl is a resident breeder across the Indian subcontinent and found mainly on the ground in dry, semi-desert areas, grasslands, scrublands, open and deciduous forests, roost in trees or other high places at night. They are omnivorous and feed on seeds, insects, fruits, small mammals and reptiles. They feed on small snakes but keep their distance from larger ones [2]. Around cultivated areas, peafowls feed on a wide range of crops such as groundnut, tomato, paddy, chilly and even bananas [3]. Like other pheasants, peafowls are adapted to a life of walking and forging on the ground as they search for the seeds, plants, insects and reptiles for its diet.

Many parts of India, the birds can be a nuisance to agriculture as they damage [4]. Its adverse effects on crops, however, seem to be offset by the beneficial role it plays by consuming prodigious quantities of pests such as grasshoppers. They can also be a problem in gardens and homes where they damage plants, attack their reflections breaking glass and mirrors, perch and scratch cars or leave their droppings. Many cities where they have been introduced and gone feral have peafowl management programmers. These include educating citizens on how to prevent the birds from causing damage while treating the birds humanely [5].

Poaching of peacocks for their meat and feathers and accidental poisoning by feeding on pesticide treated seeds are known threats to wild birds [6]. Methods to identify if feathers have been plucked or have been shed naturally have been developed as Indian law allows only the collection of feathers that have been shed [7]. In Tamil Nadu the peafowls can be seen in many parts both in wild and semi-wild condition. The present investigation was indented to study on Indian Peafowl with the following objectives in Kollidam river basin areas of Tamil Nadu.

The major objectives of the study were to find out the abundance of peafowl population in and around the study area, investigate the age sex classification of peafowl, find out the roosting tree preference and roosting behavior, estimate the time activity budget and study on conflict between peafowls and humans.

Methodology

The study was made in the villages surrounded by Neelathanallur which is situated in the basin of Kollidam river. Here most of the peoples were depending up their livelihoods for agricultural practice only. The major crops cultivated in this area was paddy, sugar cane, maize, ground nut, vegetables and cotton. The data were collected at 15 sites where the peafowl population is high in the cultivated areas. Line transect method were followed to estimate the population of the Indian Peafowl [8, 9, 10]. The cultivated areas were considered as the sampling unit and transects of 2 km length were walking across the cultivated fields. A total of 15 temporary transects were studied in all the 15 villages of the study area. In each transect were walked morning (6.00 am to 7.30 am and evening times (4.00 pm–6.30 pm) resulting in a sampling effort of 30 km in all the months during the study period. For each sighting of the peafowl species, detection time, group size, age and sex class, sighting angle and the sighting radial distance from the transect line were recorded. Sighting angles were recorded using a hand-held compass. Sighting distances were measured approximately.

Results

The study areas mostly dominated with crops cultivation and mainly cultivated by grains and vegetables. The different species of crops cultivated in the study area is given in the Table 1.

Discussion

A total of 45 occasions of peafowl sighting consists of 119 birds. Adult female is the mostly sighted bird (64) with 23 sightings. Adult male has been sighted 12 times consists of 28 individuals. Sub adult male and chicks were sighted less in number. Similarly, the same observation of 713 birds were recorded in 429 occasions during the data collection period and the peafowl density estimated for Chilla Range of Rajaji National Park during the study was 88.24 birds per sq.km [15]. Veeramani, et al. [5] recorded 234 peafowls consists of 111 males, 105 females and 18 sub adults in Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary with the density of 2.86 birds per sq.km in scrub jungle forests where as it was 20.64 birds per sq.km. in dry deciduous habitat.

The present study of peafowls in Neelathanallur and surroundings of Kollidam river basin of Tamil Nadu shows that the sex ratio of adult male and adult female is 1:1.55. Whereas the adult female and chicks ratio is 1: 0.2. Das, et al. [15] estimated the male to female sex ratio of peafowl was estimated at 1: 1.44, which is near similar sex ratio reported from other parts of Northern India, in a sex ratio of 1: 1.24 [16]. Veeramani, et al. [5] estimated the sex ratio of adult male and adult females was 1: 0.95. In the polygynous peafowl harem-mating system was noticed as reported by Ali, et al. [17] but not by all adult males. Johnsingh, et al. [18] noted a sex ratio favouring apparent females, but admitted that, they may have mistaken immature females as males, which probably affected their estimates. Rajadurai [19] reported the sex ratio of Adult male and adult female peafowls in Viralimalai areas of Tamil Nadu is 1: 1.4.

In the study areas with semi wild condition the roosting tree species selection by the peafowls mostly prefer Coconut tree (Cocos nusifer) for roosting and it was rarely roost in other trees such as Bambusa arundinaceae followed by Borasus fabelliformes, Tamarindus indica and Azadiracta indica. Similar results have also been reported by Ward, et al. in case of other birds species. Dodia [20] has reported that among 14 trees species (Azadiracta indica, Ficus bengalensis, Eucalyptus, Cocos nucifera, Prosopsis juliflora, Mangifera indica, Ziziphus mauritina, Syzium cumini, Ficus teseila, Manikara haexandra, Terminalia catappa, Casuariana equisetafolia, Samanaea saman, Adansonnia digitate) peafowl roosted mainly on Azadiracta indica, Ficus bengalensis, Eucalyptus and Cocos nucifera in Gujarat state of India. In Mudumala Wildlife Sanctuary peafowls preferred 8 types of tree species for roosting such as Acacia sundra, Cordia oblique, Bombax malabaricum, Zizyphus jujube, Eleodendron glaucum, Odina wodier, Tamarindus indica and Dalbergia latifolia. The present study of roosting tree selection by peafowl shows that most of the birds select Cocos nucsifer tree followed by Bambusa arundinaceae, Borasus fabelliformes, Tamarindus indica and Azadiracta indica. Ali, et al. [17] have reported that large birds need tall trees and small birds need small trees for roosting. In the present study, peafowl, being the large bird, was found to prefer large trees for roosting. According to Bergmann J [21]; Johansgaurd [22], blue peafowl (Pavo cristatus) has been observed on the tall trees for roosting, and nesting under dense bushes with open areas having feeding grounds. Roosting of the peafowls was very closely related with the sunset but temperature had no relation with roosting [23].

Normally Pavo cristatus are both communal and solitary roosters [24]. The present study also showed the same result. One probable reason for the communal roosting habit of peacocks at may be their vulnerability for predation by feral dogs in that area. Communal roosting facilitates the birds to detect the predators easily. On trees with dense foliage, they preferred to roost on the highest branches. These observations resemble the findings of Yasmin S [25]. Hence, it could be attributed that the selection of roosting branch by peafowl depends on the clarity of vision it provides of the surroundings. Johnsingh, et al. [3] opined that some of the roost trees were traditional sites to which peafowl return every night. This coincided with the present findings, where in one adult peacock was observed to roost regularly on a coconut and palmyra tree throughout the study period. There is a problem of crop raiding by peafowls in the agricultural fields of the study areas. About 26.25% of the observation shows the peafowls raid mainly on corn or maize plant followed by paddy field (23.11%), chilli (21.85%), cerals & grams (16.14%) respectively. Similar observation was made in the Viralimalai region by Rathinasabapathy [26]; Rajadurai [19]. The activity budget of peafowl of the present study shows that the peafowls mostly spent their time for feeding followed by Resting, Walking, Preening and Display and call. The behavior of Indian peafowl was strongly influenced by age and sex. Adult males spent only about half as much time as females in feeding. This could be attributed to greater amount of time spent standing, displaying and preening by adult males than by females. Adult males spent significantly more time in preening than sub-adult males and females suggesting they incurred a ‘high maintenance handicap’ because of the elaborate ornamentation [27].

Subadult males, which lack the long train but possess the iridescent plumage similar to that of the adult males, were observed to spend about half the time spent by the adult males in preening [28, 29].

Conclusion

Questionnaire survey of the cultivators revealed the same result which derived from the field data including the population, roosting tree and roosting height preference, activity budget, food and feeding of peafowls in the study area. The people living in the study sites does not have much impact due to peafowl in the area. They are not doing any harm to the peafowl because they are worshipping the peacock as vehicle of Lord Subramania. Only very few incidents of poisoning happened in the recent past otherwise the peafowls are the pet of the people living around.

Acknowledgements

The authors are highly obliged to the Tamil Nadu State Council for Science and Technology (TNSCST) for providing financial assistant to conduct the study. The authors also thankful to the College Principal and staff members, Department of Zoology for their timely help during the study period.