Lakhimpur Kheri, April 14 -- The UP principal conservator of forests (PCCF), wildlife, has sent a two-member team on Monday to investigate the circumstances leading to 25 vultures dying in Semariya village under Bhira forest range of Dudhwa Buffer Zone on April 7. The two-member team comprises Sanjay Kumar Pathak, additional managing director, UP Forest Corporation and former Dudhwa Tiger Reserve (DTR) field director, and Sundaresh, divisional forest officer (DFO), Bahraich (who is known by a single name). The team was accompanied by Dudhwa buffer zone deputy director Kirti Chaudhary, Dr Mudit Gupta from WWF-India and sub divisional officer (SDO), buffer zone Manoj Tiwari and others. The two member team talked to Dudhwa Buffer Zone deputy director Kirti Chaudhary and sought details of the incident from her. They also talked to the locals, scribes and the pesticide sellers and sought information from them. They called upon the villagers to avoid high potency pesticides to prevent the occurrence of such incidents. Also, Pathak asked pesticide sellers to keep a record of those purchasing pesticides with the purpose of purchase. The team is expected to submit its report about its findings within a few days. Talking to Hindustan Times, Pathak said "it was reported that a few villagers had lured some stray dogs to pesticides-mixed rice in retaliation after the dogs had allegedly killed their goats, which led to their deaths." "However, the pesticides were feared to be of some high potency like organo phosphate class, which not only killed the dogs but the vultures also, which consumed their carcass," he added. He said that the exact cause of vultures' death and the nature of the poison, assumed to be the reason behind the vultures' death, would be ascertained after the viscera report is received. Dev Kant Pandey...