A GROWING PIGEON MENACE

The humble pigeon has fluttered through human history—as messenger, companion and cultural symbol.

- By DHAVAL S. KULKARNI

Bollywood even immortalised the ubiquitous bird as an emblem of love in the 1989 romantic blockbuster Maine Pyar Kiya. But in today’s urban India, the bird has become an object of ambivalence—evoking compassion in some and seen by others as a harbinger of disease and civic decay.

Mumbai is witnessing such tensions of late. On November 3, Jain monk Nileshchandra Vijay launched a protest at Azad Maidan against the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) decision to shut down the iconic kabutarkhana in Dadar, one of the city’s largest pigeon-feeding sites. For the Jain community, feeding pigeons is a pious act. Earlier, the monk had warned that the community would “take up arms” against the crackdown.

Meanwhile, the BMC’s move to permit controlled pigeon feeding at four new locations has drawn protests from residents of Lokhandwala, Andheri. They fear that large-scale feeding could drive away the 100-odd migratory and exotic bird species that frequent the Lokhandwala lake. Earlier, a proposal by the state government to set up feeding centres in areas such as the Sanjay Gandhi National Park was opposed by wildlife conservationist Kedar Gore, who cautioned that these sites would attract other species along with pigeons, exposing them to the zoonotic diseases the birds carry.

AVIAN AILMENTS

With growing concerns over pigeons causing illnesses, Dr Amit Sakaria, senior consultant physician at Ruby Hall Clinic, Pune, lists some of the serious diseases caused by pigeon exposure

Histoplasmosis: Caused by fungi like Histoplasma capsulatum found in pigeon droppings; can lead to serious lung complications

Cryptococcosis: A lung disease that targets the central nervous system, posing greater risk to people with weakened immunity

Psittacosis: A bacterial infection from pigeons that can progress to pneumonia if left untreated