A month ago, I received distress calls from people in Mumbai that the municipal commissioner had suddenly swooped down on a 20-year-old feeding platform (chabutra) for pigeons, which was on the side of the road in Khar, had covered it with plastic sheets and posted police people so that no one could feed the birds. The pigeons left inside died of starvation as they were not allowed out. The pigeons outside, who had been fed for years, had nowhere else to go so they stayed on the road waiting to be fed. Hundreds were run over by cars. Anyone who tried to feed them was made to sit in a police station. In the meantime, the municipal commissioner had got several completely untrue articles published in local papers about how dangerous pigeons are to human health.
I talked to the commissioner and this is the reason he gave me: “Pigeons lay eggs. The eggs are eaten by crows. We don’t want crows. So, if we get rid of pigeons, the crows will leave.”
There is no scientific proof of any link between pigeon eggs and crow breeding. Crows are scavengers. They will continue to breed as long as humans generate filth.
We need to know why pigeons are in the cities. Thousands of people feed them – in Delhi there are designated feeding areas and people come in scooters and cars to throw feed. My hospital has over a thousand pigeons that have been hurt by cats, dogs and cars.
There are no pigeons in the wild any more. How did they become city creatures like dogs and cats?
As far back as 10,000 years ago, people in Mesopotamia and Egypt began coxing them with food and encouraging them to feed and breed near human dwellings. These birds were then caught and eaten. People started breeding them like chickens to eat. And the breeding and domestication led to the subspecies in our cities today. Over time, people started breeding them as a hobby. Pigeons were transported all over the world by ship to feed the pigeon-breeding hobby. Obviously, many escaped and began to breed freely in the cities. They had been bred over time to be comfortable with humans and so they took up nesting on building ledges, window sills: anything that looked like a cliff edge.
People realised that pigeons had a talent for navigation, and sailors used them to point lost ships towards land. They became valuable as airborne messengers and even armies started using them. Pigeon posts were recognised all over the world. Genghis Khan used pigeons as daily messengers both to enemies and allies. They were used widely in both World Wars.
America alone used 200,000 of them in the Second World War. Medals for bravery were given to pigeons. The last messaging service using pigeons in the world was disbanded in 2006 by the police force in the state of Odisha.
By then, pigeons had also adapted their appetites from berries, insects and seeds to anything that humans would feed them – from grain to ice cream and biscuits – and they became expert trash hunters. There is a lovely film on You Tube about a pigeon in Canada that steals a bag of chips from a shop every day!
What is there to hate in pigeons? They are good-looking with iridescent necks and so many colours. People who have adopted injured pigeons who cannot fly any more say that they are beloved members of the household.
Charming, affectionate, sociable with individual personalities. When they live indoors, they keep themselves very clean and love bathing! They are easy to potty train. Pigeons are important to the cleanliness of a city. Crows are still too shy to walk around with people. But pigeons eat all the trash that we throw on the sidewalk. They are smart with complex social systems. I think that they think they are people too.
What is their importance? We need hawks, eagles, falcons and kites, and pigeons are a food for them. Pigeon compost is considered the best of all manures. In early history, perhaps, the domestication of pigeons led to advances in the ability to grow the best possible crops. Pigeon faeces were so valuable that armed guards were hired to protect dovecotes from thieves.
In the Middle East, where eating pigeon flesh was forbidden, dovecotes were built simply to provide manure for growing fruit and this practice continued for centuries. In France, Italy and Spain guano was used extensively on hemp crops and for the fertilisation of vineyards. It is nitrogen-rich. There are ads on the net advertising pigeon manure which sells for twice the price of other manures. Their compost is unsurpassed for fertilising tomatoes, watermelon, eggplant, roses, and other plants that like a rich soil.
Who hates them? The same people who drove out sparrows, wrens, warblers, blue jays, cardinals, egrets, and everything else. The same people who choose sterile joyless streets as a representation of “cleanliness” and “development” over human happiness.
And they make up these stories about disease-spreading.
Do pigeons spread disease? No. If they did, they would not have been eaten for centuries without a single case of disease reported. In the 19th Century, the American government urged people to collect pigeons and eat them for protein.
Ironically, the pigeon is now wrongly perceived as a disease-carrier as a result of commercial propaganda pumped out by the pest control industry. In reality they pose little or no risk at all. I have a staff of people who look after diseased and sick pigeons. Not one person – and they work without gloves and face protectors – has ever fallen sick in the last 40 years.
Do pigeons, or their excrement, transmit diseases to human beings? The answer is, no. How to reduce pigeon numbers in the city? The answer is very simple. Making pigeon chabutaras and designated feeding sites, and using pigeon lofts where eggs can be removed, has been proven to be successful in every city where it has been tried. If the Mumbai Municipal Commissioner wants to reduce pigeons, it can only be done by establishing chabutaras, not by removing them.
To join the animal welfare movement contact gandhim@nic.in, www.peopleforanimalsindia.org