Three rare white peafowls were seized by the BSF while they were being smuggled into India from Bangladesh in the Matiary area of Nadia on Friday morning.

Later, the BSF authorities handed over two peafowls to forest officials in Ranaghat as one of the rare birds had died earlier in the day.

A senior forest department official in Ranaghat said a genetic variant has made peafowl a rare bird in India.

An official of the forest department’s Nadia-Murshidabad division said: “We have examined the two peafowls that are similar to the blue Indian peafowl but a mutation has turned them white. They will be kept in our custody till further decision is taken.”

“A genetic mutation known as leucism, which means an abnormal condition of reduced pigmentation on its layers of feathers, makes the white peafowls special and uncommon. Most peafowls we see belong to albino category, which have an absence of white pigmentation on their plumage. The white plumages of the rescued peafowls prove that they do not belong to the albino family. We have informed our senior officials who will examine the birds and identify its actual variety,” the officer told The Telegraph.