One year with Peacocks and People

Post date: Dec 31, 2016 8:39:22 AM

Last year has been memorable for many reasons- and many of those memorable moments are related to Peacocks and people.

Let me start with giving a little bit background. In November 2015, I got a Fellowship from Govt. of India to work on an exciting project--a project that has been cooking in my head since 2013. I am planning to study the interactions between humans and peacocks. The moment I mention this to people, a rapid fire round of questions starts- wow! peacocks! But why? What do you mean by interactions between humans and peacocks? Do you catch them? Do you feed them? Do you go very close to them? Where do you go to study them? Can you take us to see them dance? What would you get out of this study?

When I started thinking about this project it was clear to me that many people know about peacocks, especially in India. Many people have seen them closely, have been mesmerized by their beauty and extravagance, there are lots of stories and incidences about peacocks, but most of the knowledge is anecdotal. There are very few systematic studies on peacocks in India and there are a LOT of misconceptions about them too. So what exactly am I studying? Why peacocks?

What we popularly call peacocks, have a common name- Indian Peafowl. The male of this species is peacock (and we seem to notice ONLY them!), female is peahen and there are peachicks. The scientific name is Pavo cristatus. This species is native to south-east Asia but now has spread to many countries including Japan, France, UK, USA, Mexico, Canada and so on. In many parts of India, people have co-existed peacefully with peafowls for centuries. Peacocks are integral part of our traditional songs, folklore and art. In a way, they are very familiar to most of the Indians. In some parts of India, they are thought be sacred birds or a tourism attraction, while in certain parts they are seen as crop pests or nuisance. In some parts of India, traditional hunters used to kill peafowl and eat their meat which is considered as a delicacy. Peacock feathers have been used as an exotic decoration item since ages. Such diverse attitudes, beliefs towards a species and their proximity to humans can influence the birds in many ways. Proximity to humans can change their feeding patterns, diet, their communication with other Peafowl, display behaviors or population numbers. On the other hands, humans have also been affected by peacocks- tourism based on Peafowl, sell of feathers, their nuisance to crops can influence local economy. These diverse interactions may influence how well people tolerate peafowl near their habitation, how much population density of peafowl can be sustained in an area cohabited by humans and peafowl. These are important questions to consider for conservation of these birds, especially when their natural habitats are disappearing fast.

However, there have not been any systematic studies on diverse interactions between humans and peafowl in India and elsewhere. So I decided to take it up as a project for next 5 years to study the interactions and their mutual effects on both humans and peafowl.

My field work took me to various cities and villages in Maharashtra and Rajasthan. One of my field sites is Morachi Chincholi village near Pune. I have written about one of my earlier visits there in the previous blog. The first glimpses of the village with so many peacocks was really mesmerizing! I have been visiting this village almost once a month since then. This is a village famous for large number of peacocks. The villagers are proud of their wide reaching fame and they know that they are famous because of the peacocks around them. The villagers claim that there are about 2000-3000 peacocks in the surrounding areas, however, I am yet to confirm that number by doing actual population census of Peafowl. There are about 6-7 agro-tourism resorts in this small village. Tourists flock to the village all around the year to see peacocks. Many resort owners are farmers who regularly put out grains (Jawar, Bajri, wheat, rice, or lentils like toor, moong, chickpeas) for the peafowl. The peafowl get a reliable source of food around the year and visit these "feeding stations" everyday. The farmers cum resort owners host visitors on their farm/ house and gain a good income through tourism. Many resorts offer other village experiences like bullock cart ride, tractor ride, meals on the farm, fresh produce, etc. The villagers are very friendly and will point out peafowl if you haven't noticed them already. I have become familiar with many villagers now. They know me as a regular visitor-a lady who studies and counts peacocks in their village (God knows how and why!). I also conduct questionnaire based survey in the village to study the interactions between villagers and the peafowl. I have met humble farmers who dote on the peacocks in their farms, wide eyed tourists that visit the village just to see SO MANY beautiful peacocks, Thopate kaka (uncle) and Kaku (aunt) who run a agro-tourism resort and treat me like a family member whenever I visit, Santosh Bhau (a retired soldier turned farmer) who gets angry if I bring a tiffin to his resort and not eat the delicious meal cooked by his wife, a forest guard who is ready to help--the list goes on. These people are so closely connected to rhythm of seasons and life around them, that whenever I enter the village, it feels like another world disconnected from my city life. They are simple, welcoming and great hosts. Many villagers go out of their way to help you. Having born and brought up in the city, I was completely ignorant about farming, crop patterns, how village life depends on farming and chores around it. While doing my survey questionnaire, I realized just how integral farming is to the life in village. I ask them questions regarding their yearly crop yield, which crop pests, diseases affect their crop, what is their yearly income having no idea about the uncertainty in income through farming. I have now started realizing that there is a lot of uncertainty in farming profession. Farmers do not have guaranteed income like city people with defined jobs and working hours. With untimely rains, drought, crop diseases, market rate that they get after the crop is ready and many other factors change frequently and unpredictably. That changes their "earnings" from year-to-year. A lot of that income has to be put again as investment for next season's crop, in addition to running the household expenses. Yet with all that uncertainty, they are the most accommodating people I have met.

Even the peafowl are very comfortable around the villagers. People going around their daily chores do not bother the peafowl and many a times peafowl walk by, feed, display, preen within 20m of the farm workers. However, peafowl seem to "know" who are outsiders/ visitors. Many villagers suggested me to dress up like them if I want to go close to the peafowl to study/ photograph them. I have experienced this myself and I hope to become a "local" for the peafowl so that I can study their behavior at a close distance.

When I ask the villagers- do peafowl eat crops? How much is the loss? Most of them say that yes, peafowl do eat our crops and there is loss of 5-25% depending on the crop. However, the farmers do not consider that as a "loss", because where else the peafowl can go to eat? The farmers assume that some percentage of the crop is going to be eaten by Peafowl and other birds, animals around. Peafowl is the pride of their village and they do not want to drive them away for such small loss.

I started thinking whether this crop "loss" is getting offset by income through tourism and related jobs? The picture started getting complicated with that question.

I hope to write about more details of this complex picture in next few posts.