Kota: The carcasses of 12 peacocks and seven turtles were recovered from separate areas of the Ramgarh Vishdhari Tiger Reserve (RVTR) in Bundi district Friday, sparking speculation over whether poaching, disease or some other factor was behind the deaths. The peacock bodies were recovered from the buffer zone of RVTR, while the dead turtles were found near a water body in the reserve’s territorial area under the Bansi forest check post. Villagers from Kolaspura alerted forest officials after spotting the dead peacocks near Bheruji temple in the reserve’s Indergarh range, after which a team rushed to the spot. Assistant conservator of forest Shourabh Mangal said that among the 12 peacock carcasses recovered, seven were males and five females. He said all the carcasses were around two to seven days old. “No signs of hunting or poisoning were found on the spot, and the exact cause of death remains to be ascertained,” he added.A medical board later conducted post-mortems, and tissue samples gathered from the birds are slated for dispatch to a laboratory for analysis. The carcasses were later disposed of as per protocol.Dr Kavita, who was on the medical board that conducted the post-mortems, said a few of the carcasses indicated signs of disease, while others were decomposed. “The exact reason for the deaths will be made clear once we receive a medical report,” she said. Meanwhile, the carcasses of seven turtles, four females and three males, were recovered from near Dodi village in the reserve area. Dayaram, the forest department personnel in charge at Bansi check post, said they were alerted to the bodies by villagers. A member of the medical board that conducted the post-mortem of the turtles said the animals appear to have died of suffocation.
