Vellore

A farmer, who killed peacocks with poisoned grain, was arrested by the Tirupattur forest department and incarcerated in Vellore central prison on Friday. Meganathan (38) a farmer of Kurchilapet near Tirupattur owned a 2 acre farm. However, peacocks from the nearby hills regularly raided his crops and devoured them causing loss to him. In a bid to control the menace, he mixed rat poison in grain and spread it out for e birds. The peacocks consumed the poisoned grain, six of them died on the spot. Locals on seeing the dead birds alerted forest department officials and sent the dead birds to the local veterinary hospital for postmortem, while Meganathan was arrested and jailed.