Until a few years ago, the tussle between man and another bipedal species, the rock pigeon, was a daily feature at Jaipur’s historic Albert Hall Museum. The pigeons were a photogenic lot but as their droppings stained the iconic domes and the fountains in the courtyard, around 2007, the museum decided it had to act.

First, came a falcon – to shoo the pigeons away. “It was just one falcon, tied with a string, and employed for a demonstration before then Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and top officials,” said former Albert Hall Superintendent Rakesh Cholak, who served in this position for about two decades.

But when the idea ran into opposition from bird lovers, the museum tried other ways – from covering the windows with glass and the indoor balconies with spikes. While that helped, partially, the museum authorities decided to cover much of the structure with cotton and nylon nets.

The nets, says Mohammad Arif, the current superintendent of the museum, have largely kept the pigeons out, but the stray ones still find their way in.

Delhi to Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Pune and Jaipur, almost every Indian city has a burgeoning pigeon population that has left an indelible mark on the cityscape – from pigeon feeding spots that create traffic bottlenecks to stained home balconies and that unmissable white trickle that’s a hallmark of most statues at city squares.

In October 2024, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi said it was considering banning pigeon feeding spots.

In March 2023, the Thane Municipal Corporation put up posters, warning of a Rs-500 fine on those found feeding pigeons. In 2022, a campaign run by the Residents’ Association of Khar in Mumbai had led to the demolition of the massive Khar kabutarkhana.

Anandini Thakoor, Managing Trustee of the Khar Residents’ Association told The Indian Express, “Near the densely populated railway station, there stood the Khar kabutarkhana where people would purchase grains and feed the pigeons. Owing to the feeding, the entire area would be covered in bird droppings and people would slip and fall in it.”

Between December 7 and 10, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) levied fines to the tune of Rs 15,500 across its 15 ward offices as punitive measures against individuals feeding pigeons in open spaces. PMC Deputy Commissioner Sandeep Kadam said, “There are health risks due to pigeon’s droppings and we have introduced an awareness campaign with several banners across the city.”

Ahmedabad’s iconic chabutro — intricately carved towers made of wood, stone or concrete that have canopied enclosures at the top – were originally meant as bird feeders for sparrows and other smaller birds, but are now overrun with pigeons. The Amdavad Municipal Corporation, too, recently identified and flagged several traffic bottlenecks at spots where people stopped to feed birds.

A millennia-old relationship

While municipalities are struggling to tackle this explosion in pigeon population, it isn’t – and wasn’t – always a fraught relationship. The birds have fascinated humans, with whom they have coexisted for several millennia.

Though the written history of their relationship is disputed, some scholars suggest that it all began approximately 10,000 years ago when the ancient Mesopotamian settlements began to domesticate rock doves or Columba livia — the wild ancestor of the feral pigeons that dominate our cities now. In fact, they are said to be the first birds humans domesticated.

Since then, pigeons have played an essential role in human well-being with their meat considered a rich source of protein. They also contributed to agricultural developments in many countries, with their guano or excrement a natural fertiliser – so rich in nutrients, according to a report by the BBC Wildlife, that one load of it was worth 10 from any other species.

When humans realised that these birds could fly at high speed — as fast as 144 kmph — and had a powerful homing instinct that helps them navigate long distances back to the location they identify as home, they started using pigeons to deliver messages. This was first put to test some 3,000 years ago, and by 5th Century BC, Syria and Persia were known to have had widespread networks of message-carrying pigeons.

“It was a pigeon that delivered the results of the first Olympics in 776 BC and a pigeon that first brought news of Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo over twenty-five hundred years later,” Andrew D Blechman wrote in his book, Pigeons: The Fascinating Saga of the World’s Most Revered and Reviled Bird (2006).

In the two World Wars, more than a million pigeons were used for sending messages. The American Signal Pigeon Corps, for instance, had 3,150 soldiers and 54,000 birds in the early 1940s. These birds were credited with saving the lives of thousands of soldiers – according to reports, during World War II, 32 of them being awarded the Dickin Medal, an honour instituted in the United Kingdom in 1943 for the contribution of animals in the war.

Pigeons are still used for carrying messages in some parts of the world. The Odisha Police, for instance, has preserved a flock of the birds who until recently were put to use when disasters cut off communication links such as the Internet and mobile phones.

Besides, for centuries, humans have bred pigeons for pleasure. Mughal Emperor Akbar is known to have had a personal colony of some 20,000 pigeons and often travelled with them — the birds were transported in portable dovecotes.

It’s a legacy that has continued in the older cities of the subcontinent, where kabutarbazi or pigeon gaming is a serious sport and spectacle.

“Pigeons were trained to do quite complicated manoeuvres: the wheel (charkh), a lusty movement ending with the pigeon throwing itself over in a full circle and turning somersaults (bāzī). A select pigeon could perform 15 charkhs and 70 bazis in one session,” writes Ursula Sims-Williams, curator of Iranian languages at the British Library, in an article published in the British Library’s Asian and African Studies blog.

The fascination with the birds, combined with the concept of bird feeding, which is the cornerstone of many faiths, has led to an explosion in pigeon numbers – so much so, that the birds attract and repulse in equal measure.

So are they the flying rats or urban heroes? The jury is still out.