Mumbai's pigeon ban row | A growing pigeon menace

The humble pigeon has fluttered through human history—as messenger, companion and cultural symbol. 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. The conflict first began sometime in July, when Maharashtra’s legislature debated the health risks of pigeon droppings at 51 feeding sites across Mumbai. Industries minister Uday Samant said the BMC would be asked to shut them down. Animal rights activists rushed to the Bombay High Court, which, in an interim order, ruled that “human health was paramount”, but halted demolition of the feeding stations. In August, when the BMC covered the sites with tarpaulin sheets to prevent feeding, the feeders resisted. Hundreds of them stormed the Dadar kabutarkhana and tore down the sheets. Around 50,000 pigeons were sustained there on roughly 1,500 kg of grain daily, offered mainly by members of the Jain community. The protesters defied police orders and sparked sectarian unease in India’s financial capital..preferred-source-banner{ margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}The issue is not unique to Mumbai. Pigeons are testing civic patience across the country. Delhi’s municipal body is weighing restrictions. Pune fines offenders. In Mysuru, BJP MP Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar persuaded Jains to stop feeding birds near the city’s palace, citing risks to both health and heritage. Globally, the response is similar: feeding is regulated in New York and London, and fined in Singapore. Science vs sentimentWhat began as a routine civic crackdown in Mumbai soon spiralled into a full-blown clash over health, religion and identity. Shiv Sena MLC Manisha Kayande, who raised the matter in the legislative council, argued that an issue of scientific and medical importance had been turned into an emotional one. A former professor of zoology, she described pigeons as “flying rodents” responsible for spreading zoonotic diseases (see Avian Ailments). The myofibrils (protein filaments) on their bodies, she explains, often find their way into human lungs and trigger respiratory disorders. Such risks, she notes, have prompted countries worldwide to control pigeon populations. In the past, she adds, even grocery shops encouraged informal feeding spots for commercial gain.Petitioners contest that view. Sneha Visaria, one of them, claims that no scientific study directly links pigeon exposure to respiratory ailments. “They are not ready to understand that these are rarest of rare cases that do not happen in an open environment,” she says, pointing out that for eight months, the civic body has been cracking down on kabutarkhanas in Khar, Gowalia Tank, Naigaon and Lalbag. Instead of bans, she urges that feeders be permitted to offer grain in three one-hour blocks across the day. A trustee of the Dadar Kabutarkhana Trust adds that the ban has led to “thousands of pigeons dying due to hunger and thirst”. Similarly, Atul Shah (Dadhi), trustee of Jain organisation Vardhaman Parivar, says any ban on feeding would infringe on the fundamental rights of birds, who “have their own niche in the ecosystem”. He cites RTI replies from civic-run hospitals that appeared to downplay the scale of the threat: between July 2024 and July 2025, Sion Hospital recorded 12 cases of hypersensitivity pneumonitis, of which just four patients had been exposed to pigeons; KEM Hospital had eight cases, with two linked to the birds.Doctors disagree. Dr Deepak Bhanushali, a pulmonologist at state-run JJ Hospital, says his team sees two to three new cases each month of hypersensitivity pneumonitis caused by exposure to pigeon feathers or droppings. “Though there are no tests to prove that it is caused only by pigeons, exposure to pigeons is among the most common causes,” he explains. The disease’s progression can be slowed, he adds, but not reversed. Lung transplants, too, are rare and only about half of them succeed. “Such diseases should be prevented rather than faced,” he warns. Voices of reason have emerged within the Jain community too. Dr Kalyan Gangwal, a senior physician from Pune who describes himself as a “staunch Jain”, advises against pigeon-feeding in thickly populated areas because of the health risks involved. He says easy availability of food has eroded the birds’ natural instinct to forage and he advocates for controlled feeding instead. However, for some like Chetan Kamble, founder of the citizens’ group Chachak Dadar, the problem is urban order. He says pigeons at feeding stations pose risks to traffic, especially two-wheelers. Kamble also points to what he sees as “hypocrisy”: a Jain temple near the Dadar kabutarkhana has installed nets to keep pigeons out, even as Jain groups insist the birds be fed in public spaces.Fault lines to the ForeThe language-driven divides of Maharashtra’s polity, especially in Mumbai and its surrounding areas, have made the pigeon-feeding controversy sharply polarising—pitting Marathi speakers against the Jain community. Relations between the two had already been strained in recent years over a range of issues: meat-eating Maharashtrians being denied housing in neighbourhoods dominated by vegetarian Gujaratis, Marwaris and Jains; the mushrooming of Jain-only gated complexes in former working-class Maharashtrian localities; and the shutting down or relocation of fish markets located near such buildings. The monk Nileshchandra Vijay had appealed to Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray to intervene. But Thackeray, for his part, sought action against those who continue feeding pigeons, asking the monk to adhere to the HC order. After the Dadar kabutarkhana row, the nativist outfit Marathi Ekikaran Samiti (MES) organised a morcha of Maharashtrians and local residents in support of the ban. MES vice-president Pramod Parte questioned why a minor issue like a ban on pigeon-feeding had been given a religious colour by the Jains, alleging that the community’s show of strength was directed against Marathis.Analysts say pro-Marathi parties such as the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and the MNS—despite their strong presence in Dadar and a history of physically attacking Hindi speakers—have been muted in the face of aggression from the wealthier Jains. “The established political parties are beholden to the Jains and cannot afford to hurt them. This has exposed the limitations of politics around Marathi,” notes academician Deepak Pawar of the Marathi Abhyas Kendra. He says the growing assertion of Jains can be traced to the BJP’s reign and “the power of numbers of North Indians, the resources of the Jains and the ideology of the RSS”.The issue also gave the Shiv Sena (UBT) a stick to beat the ruling Mahayuti with. Lok Sabha MP Anil Desai, whose constituency covers Dadar, accused the state government of indulging in vote-bank politics for electoral gains. But a party source attributes the Sena (UBT)’s lack of aggressive stance to the Jains’ ability to vote en masse and tilt the balance. The MNS argues that the BJP is banking on a Jain and non-Maharashtrian consolidation to win the forthcoming BMC polls. The BJP, however, rejects the charge, with state spokesperson Keshav Upadhye insisting that Fadnavis will “evolve a solution that will strike a golden mean between the faith of the society and the health of the masses”.Environmentalists say that the easy availability of food and overfeeding have driven a sharp rise in the pigeon population, accompanied by a parallel surge in rodents that thrive on the leftover grain. Natural predators such as kites and cats have been unable to keep pace. The State of India’s Birds 2023 report notes that the numbers of the rock pigeon (Columba livia) have increased by 158.47 per cent since 2000, effectively making it an invasive species. Each bird, estimates suggest, produces around 11.5 kg of droppings annually. The health risks apart, these droppings are also a hazard to Mumbai’s heritage structures, a senior BMC official points out. They can often trigger chemical reactions, leaving stains on iconic monuments.Kishor Rithe, director of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), stresses the importance of maintaining an ecological balance. The surge in pigeon numbers, he notes, has coincided with a decline in native bird species such as flycatchers. “In wildlife management, it is an established fact that the dominance of one species is dangerous to others,” he explains, adding that science, not sentiment, should guide the debate on pigeon-feeding. Jay Shringarpure, an environmentalist who heads the MNS’s environment wing, argues that illegal kabutarkhanas have fuelled the unchecked growth of pigeons. His campaign targets awareness rather than punishment. “If pigeons were not fed, they would follow their natural impulse to search for food and water,” he says. Wildlife conservationist Kedar Gore calls it a problem without an amicable solution. “It is either aar or paar (this way or that way),” he says.The bird itself is oblivious to all the chaos erupting around it, flocking around the feed left for them. It is humans who have to choose between faith and sanitation.—with Sonali Acharjee- EndsPublished By: Shyam BalasubramanianPublished On: Nov 7, 2025

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Mumbai's pigeon ban row | A growing pigeon menace

In Mumbai, pigeon-feeding sets faith, ecology and politics on a collision course. The real worry, though, is public health

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