India, Nov. 24 -- Railway Protection Force (RPF) officers late on Sunday rescued 33 peacocks and other rare birds from Kolkata-bound Netaji Express at Dehri-on-Sone station in Bihar. Acting on a tip-off, a special RPF team led by inspector Ram Vilas Ram raided the train's S-7 coach at 10:30 pm, where they found Vikram Mukherjee, 22, of Gopalpur in Murshidabad district of West Bengal, in possession of three plastic bags containing 33 live peacocks, five partridges, and two yellow-footed green pigeons.

Mukherjee was unable to produce legal documents or give a reason for transporting the birds, leading to his arrest. He and the seized birds were handed over to the forest department for further action, railway SP (Patna) Amritendu Shekhar Th...