Punjab’s natural vegetation, especially in rural areas, which included fields interspersed with horticulture trees and dense ever green native trees, provided a suitable habitat for its feeding and roosting.

The loss of tree cover at the time of consolidation of land holdings and increased use of pesticides during the Green Revolution in Punjab has led to decrease in availability of habitat and pesticide-free grain for the Indian peafowl. In spite of this, the bird can still be sighted in great numbers in Todar Majra, Makrian, Chunni Khurad, Makar and Majatri villages. As informed by Amar Kaur of village Todar Majra, the villagers are protecting Indian peafowl since ancient times.

Apart from their beauty, another reason the villagers protect the Indian peafowl is that these birds feed on small snakes and insects from the fields. Religion also plays a key role in protection as the feathers, shed by these birds once a year, are used for decoration in the local gurudwara and temple for making the chaura fan over the Guru Granth Sahib by the Sikh community. Hindus in the area also consider the birds sacred. According to a local villager, Paramjit Singh Grewal, the birds are considered residents of the village and thus the villagers protect the birds as they would any other member of the community.

The villagers do not allow anybody to take away or kill the Indian peafowl in their area. The community has planted a number of mango trees to give breeding, roosting and nesting places to the birds, and they allow them to feed on the grain in the fields. Every villager provides shelter to these birds on their rooftops, in open yards or in the gardens, and keeps large bowls of water and grain for them. Indian peafowl can be seen moving freely in large numbers in the area and local villagers do not mind their presence even if they destroy the crops (especially fields of spinach, pulses, pea, raya, fenugreek, chillies, etc.) out of love and close association with the birds.

As a result of the villagers’ efforts, about 400 Indian peafowl have been protected in Todar Majra village alone, which has an area of 500 acres (202.4 ha) and a human population of around 700 persons.

Trees in certain areas are being cut from the panchayat lands by certain influential people in the village, thus destroying the nesting and roosting sites of these birds.

In recent years, due to excessive use of chemical fertilizers in the fields, some Indian peafowl have died due to pesticide poisoning. However, in the recent times some motivated and slightly educated individuals who have come to know about the negative effects of chemical fertilizers have begun motivating the rest of the villagers to use less of them.