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By Usha Rai
With the undergrowth in Delhi’s Lodhi Gardens being steadily removed to extend the gardens for more courting couples and morning walkers, peahens are being displaced and forced to nest on the ledges of adjoining buildings 24-36 feet from the ground
 Peacocks, with their exquisite plumage, are India’s national birds. But it’s the Indian peahens, which have traditionally nested in undergrowths on the ground, that are making history in New Delhi by nesting on broad ledges of buildings at heights of 24-36 feet from the ground.
In 2004 the President of the World Pheasant Association, Samar Singh, was having lunch at the second floor restaurant of India International Centre annexe, adjoining Lodhi Gardens, when he noticed a peahen incubating two eggs she had laid on the ledge of a window of the dining hall. There was soil on the ledges on which some small plants are normally grown. The cream-coloured eggs hatched but the chicks were killed by feral cats. Since then Samar Singh has been on the lookout for this unusual phenomenon of peahens nesting at heights on ledges instead of in the grounds of the beautiful Lodhi Gardens.
For four years now, in the height of the summer months, largely in May, he has seen peahens nesting on two ledges (3ft x 2ft) of the dining hall and producing two to three chicks at a nesting. For the first 10 days the peahens fly out at night or early morning for short trips to feed and drink. For the next 14 to 15 days they keep sitting on the eggs, not leaving their perch at all, till the eggs are hatched. In fact it is an amazing sight—the peahen sitting on the window ledge continuously for two weeks. The IIC staff provide bowls of water, breadcrumbs and coarse grain or bajra which the peahens graciously accept. When the young ones arrive, the waiters even leave boiled eggs to add to the mother’s diet.
All these developments have created considerable excitement among the staff and together with some interested members they formed a nature group and worked together to ensure privacy for the birds and to keep a watch for possible predators. The bird was endearingly named matari or mother.
Since the chicks become active within hours, there was fear of their falling off the ledges. Also there was concern about how they would descend to earth. So a wooden platform of 10 feet with a net thrown on top of it was placed directly below the ledge to prevent injury to the chicks. But three days after the chicks were hatched the mother went out on a recce mission. On returning she pushed the bigger two chicks and they spread their little wings, raised them a bit and came down like a parachute. The youngest chick followed them. Once on the ground, the chicks were led to the sunken garden and remained there in the bushes.
Park authorities across the city have been alerted about the disturbance to the green areas that are forcing peahens to find high perches for nesting in urban areas. Letters have been written to Chief Minister Sheila Dixit as well as the Delhi Administration to make gardens more bird-friendly. Meanwhile, WPA-India has begun the study of selected big parks in New Delhi to assess the status of peafowl and work out recommendations for improving the situation, especially for the nesting of ground-dwelling birds.
 With lots of constructions coming up around Lodhi Gardens and the number of morning walkers and courting couples on the increase, there is a lot of disturbance in the gardens. The citydwellers’ desire for unending garden spaces has led to the destruction of shrubbery and undergrowth which are required for peahens to nest in. The peacocks need at least 28 days of seclusion for nesting and they find it difficult to find this in the garden. A few years ago, when this writer was a regular walker at Lodhi Gardens, in the monsoon season huge snails could be seen all over. Since many of them were being crushed under the striding feet of the walkers, little boards were put up announcing ‘Watch where you walk-- Snail Trail’.
Maybe similar signposts can be set up for the peacocks—‘Courting couples, leave this undergrowth for the peacocks’! For the time being a huge enclosure has been constructed at Lodhi Gardens for mother peahens to raise their chicks securely before they are old enough to fly out. This year there were two nestings on the ledges of IIC annexe—in May/June and again in October. A mother and three chicks are in the enclosure at Lodhi Gardens. They are normally kept in the enclosure for two-and-a-half months before the chicks are considered old enough to fend for themselves.
Three significant and unusual behaviours of the Indian peafowl have been observed:
- Nesting by five peafowls in window ledges at considerable heights at very busy urban intersections, successful incubation and hatching.
- Continuous perching by a peahen fowl for 17 to 18 days for incubation and hatching.
- The manner in which chicks of 1 to 2 days flew 30 feet to the ground by raising their wings like parachutes.
In fact an elated Samar Singh said he had even made a presentation of this unusual phenomenon of the peafowl nesting at the International Galliformes Symposium in China last year and a poster presentation at the International Telecommunication Conference in INTACH, Delhi.
(Usha Rai is a senior development journalist based in New Delhi)
InfoChange News & Features, December 2008 |
