Backstory: When protests erupted over a ban on feeding pigeons

In August, a strange story from Mumbai appeared in the news.

The city’s municipal corporation began to shut down 51 kabutarkhanas in response to a silent health crisis – the bird droppings were causing respiratory troubles for residents. It was not the decision that was strange but the response to it. Rallies and marches were held across the city to demand that the pigeon feeding sites be reopened.

Most of the protestors were Jains, members of a community that believes that feeding pigeons is “punya ka kaam” or a work of charity. They feared that the birds would starve if they were not fed. Even monks from the community went on fasts to press for their demand.

A side note is relevant here. Increasing urbanisation may have wiped out large numbers of birds, such as sparrows, but pigeons have learnt to live around humans, nesting comfortably near air conditioners, on parapets and sheltered ledges. That is why most Indian cities have seen a spike in pigeon populations. It is only in recent years that authorities have begun to identify pigeons as pests whose droppings can cause serious, sometimes fatal, lung infections in humans.

And so I set off to cover the story, chasing pigeons to where they had shifted – to buildings around the kabutarkhanas, now covered in tarpaulin.

Hundreds of pigeons were flying around, perching on tree branches and building ledges, leaving their droppings on balconies and tin roofs as they tried to adjust to the new situation.

When I returned to my scooter, it was covered in bird poop.

While covering the story, I noticed an odd world of human behaviour. Near these kabutarkhanas in Dadar and Matunga squatted many beggars, some in desperate need of food and clothes. But they were ignored by the benevolent pigeon feeders, who chased after the birds to offer them grain.

The bird feeders were also diverting resources from critical tasks. Municipal staffers had been pulled away from cleaning the storm water drains, filling up potholes and pruning trees to patrol the area. In accordance with directions of the Bombay High Court, they were expected to fine people feeding pigeons.

It didn’t take long for the bird feeders to figure out the patterns of the civic staff. When I visited the Matunga kabutarkhana, a shop owner told me proudly that he would secretly throw a bag of grain on the road when municipal workers were not around. In the middle of traffic, I saw several birds pecking enthusiastically at grain.

One resident of a nearby building, who was more than 70, said she had been unable to eat for two days because she was not allowed to feed pigeons any longer. She said that she had cried the day the kabutarkhana was shut. I did not doubt her.

Her 60-year-old neighbour told me she had created a new place for feeding on their building terrace. The woman grew emotional when she recounted how her grandmother had fed pigeons described how this charitable practice had been passed on to her generation.

“We never saw anyone die of pigeon shit,” she said. “This is something new. It's a conspiracy by those who hate pigeons.”

Two floors above, I met a family of five, all of them had respiratory troubles. Pigeons nest right outside their balcony; I could see hundreds of birds right by their window. But the family was scared to complain. “It’s like being branded anti-national,” the father joked. “People come to fight if we say that pigeons are a nuisance for our building.”

In the same building, I found that pigeons had driven away a family from the in which their daughter was born and had grown up. Some years before, the mother had been diagnosed with hypersensitivity pneumonitis. A doctor advised the family to shift to ensure her survival.

Pigeons had led to people falling sick, had driven away families, had left many too scared to walk without covering their heads – yet they had a prominent lobby.

In September, a state minister inaugurated a kabutarkhana near a temple in Sanjay Gandhi National Park, on land provided by the Jain community. Eventually, the municipal body allotted four more areas for feeding pigeons in various parts of the city.

Pigeon feeding has been restricted in several cities across the world, including New York, San Francisco, Toronto, Paris, Venice, Tokyo, Melbourne and Singapore. Even Chandigarh and Ahmedabad have also put restrictions in place. Though animal support groups did protest in some of these places, the municipal corporations did not budge.

Mumbai, it seems, is determined to be unique.