Adilabad has emerged as one of the safest places for the magnificent peacock, India’s national bird, thanks to the culture and traditions of its Adivasis. Though the district has a potential demand for over 31 lakh peacock feathers every year during the Dandari festival of Gond and Kolam tribes, poaching of the bird for its feathers is practically non-existent and eco-friendly preservation methods render the actual demand to less than 5 lakh quills.

The fact came to light during a national level survey on trade in peacock feathers being carried out by TRAFFIC India, a wildlife trade monitoring network. The data collected by a representative of TRAFFIC India during the survey at Mallapur village in Indervelli mandal came out with interesting information, which is unique to the aboriginal tribes of Adilabad.

“The tribal dance season featuring the Dandari and Ghussadi starts 10 days after the Dasara festival and ends soon after Deepavali. The demand for peacock feathers arises just before the start of the dance season,” points out Atram Bheem Rao, a Gond elder and secretary of Mallapur village development committee as he talks about the use of peacock feathers by Adivasis. There are about 130 tribal villages in the district, each of which has a Dandari dance troupe, which includes 7 or 8 Ghussadi dancers. The Ghussadi headgear is made of peacock feathers, each hat having no less than 3,000 feathers with yearly addition of 300 to 500 of those. “We do not kill peacocks, rather we collect feathers which are shed by the birds soon after monsoon or purchase them from shops for a price ranging between Rs. 3 and Rs. 4 per feather. The feathers last for over 15 years once the winter dew acts on them when the hats are hung in the open for about a month soon after the dance season ends, Bheem Rao adds. The survey on peacock feather trade is being done in the country after 1980 and based on the report, to be readied in another month, a decision on banning it will be taken.

Though the district has a potential demand for over 31 lakh peacock feathers every year during the Dandari festival, poaching of the bird for its feathers is practically non-existent