Kaushambi villagers take out funeral procession for peacock

Prayagraj: In a unique gesture, locals of Bisara village in neighbouring Kaushambi district on Thursday took out the funeral procession of a peacock and conducted the last rites of the national bird as per Hindu customs. The carcass of the bird was spotted by locals in a field on Thursday morning. They informed the police and chief veterinary officer (CVO). A team of CVO conducted a postmortem and confirmed that the bird died of natural causes.
Later, villagers expressed their wish to perform the last rites of bird before CVO and district authorities. After getting the carcass, they first took out a funeral procession and then performed the last rites as per Hindu customs.
District magistrate (Kaushambi) Sujeet Kumar told TOI: “The postmortem report showed natural causes like cold behind the death.” As per the rules laid down by the government, a dead peacock deserves to be cremated on a bed of wood, in the presence of forest department officials. Before the cremation procedure, mandatory postmortem needs to be conducted followed by a panchnama report.