Earlier in the day, villagers say, a group of Bawarias was seen putting wheat granules on the roof of a dilapidated temple. The villagers waited as they knew they would come back to collect the dead birds. Three of them -- Ram Niwas, Madiya and Jagga -- came at night and were caught and thrashed by the villagers.

The post-mortem of the peacocks, a Schedule I bird according to the Wildlife Preservation Act, revealed that they died after ingesting poison-laced wheat particles. The villagers are angry. ``Ours is a village of Rajputs but never, ever has such a thing happened here. Despite being a martial race, nobody in our village has hunted these poor birds. We are feeling the pain,'' says village sarpanch MahenderSingh.

The three accused, all residents of Kotputli in Rajasthan, were produced before the Special Environment Court of Subhash Goyal at Faridabad today. They have been remanded to judicial custody for seven days.

Dr Ramesh Kataria, the veterinary surgeon who conducted the post-mortem, said that apparently the Bawarias had laced the wheat particles with pesticide.

A wildlife inspector, N P Bhardwaj says that ``either they (the Bawarias) would have used them for meat or would've chopped their claws as they are used for preparing some medicines.''