Justice Mahesh Chandra Sharma of the Rajasthan High Court earned his fifteen minutes of ‘fame’ by remarking that peahens get pregnant after gulping the tears of peacocks.
A fortnight later, his views on immaculate conception among peahens still reverberate in a small and little known peafowl sanctuary in Choolannur in Kerala’s Palakkad district.
The number of people visiting this sanctuary, from within and outside Kerala, has spiked sharply following the retired justice’s observations about the mating habits of peafowls – from an average of a mere half-a-dozen every day to more than 200.
“Few birds are capturing our collective imagination like the peafowls. The sanctuary has been low profile all these years and it attracted hardly half a dozen visitors till the justice made the interesting remark,” says forester T.G. Babu.
Clearing doubts
Adds forest guard M. Surendran: “With more than 200 people visiting the sanctuary daily over the last one week, we have the additional task of clearing doubts about the reproductive behaviour of peafowls.”
Home to over 300 peafowls and spread over a modest 3.42 sq km, the park located near Alathur was established in 2007 as a memorial to legendary ornithologist Induchoodan alias K. K. Neelakandan, who hailed from nearby Kavassery.
Addressing a bunch of visitors, Mr. Babu is at pains to explain how peafowls mate. “During courtship, peacocks spread their tail feathers into a large fan-shape and strut about to attract peahens. The peacock then mounts the peahen and transfers its sperm into the peahen’s uterus to fertilize the egg via muscular spasms.’’
Environmentalist S. Guruvayurappan estimates that the peafowl population has increased due to the prohibition on hunting and the lack of predators in the area. He says that peafowls are crucial for the ecosystem as they feed on insects that may harm the crops, thus helping farmers by keeping a check on the insect population.
Feeding programme
“For breeding purposes, a peahen needs a secluded vegetated area and the sanctuary provides this. The bird makes a nest on the ground. In order to make it a perfect haven for the national bird, we keep most areas of the sanctuary semi-wild. We have also launched a feeding programme for peafowls,” says Mr. Babu.
