Peacock overpopulation at Kannur airport raises safety concerns; relocation plan raises eyebrows

Thiruvananthapuram: While the increasing number of peacocks have become a cause for concern for the Kannur international airport in Kerala, a remedy prescribed at a high level meeting to capture and translocate the peacocks has raised many eyebrows.

Though spotting peacocks is a feel good factor for many, however, for the Kannur airport in North Kerala presence of peacocks in the vicinity is posing the risk of bird hits for aircrafts. Peacocks being a species included in the Schedule - I of the Wildlife Protection Act, tackling it involves more risks.

After a high-level meeting with forest officials, Kerala forest minister A K Saseendran said that steps will be taken to deploy expert teams to translocate the peacocks to safer places.

However, sources in the forest department said that capturing peacocks was not an easy task and it involves high risk of the bird getting killed owing to shocks.

"Peacocks are sensitive to shocks. Hence attempts like capturing by setting up traps and translocating to distant places could risk its life. Being a Schedule-I species, it could invite more trouble," said a forest department official who does not want to be quoted.

He suggested that steps like doing away with the vegetation that attract peacocks to the region and setting up mesh fences to a reasonable height that did not affect air safety could be ideal options.

The Kannur airport commissioned in 2018 is located at Moorkhan parambu ('Moorkhan' means Cobra and 'parambu' means land), around 25 kilometres away from the airport. It is believed the region got the name owing to the presence of snakes in large numbers, especially cobras.