Why Mumbai ban on feeding pigeons has pitted neighbours against each other

Seventy-five-year-old Anasuya Patel and her husband VP Patel, 77, can barely walk without support.

But on Wednesday morning, the couple joined an angry crowd as it marched towards the iconic kabutarkhana in Mumbai’s Dadar and tore off the tarpaulin sheet in which it was covered.

The kabutarkhana, or pigeon-feeding spot, had been covered with the sheet and wooden scaffolding on Sunday on the orders of the Bombay High Court.

Hundreds of pigeons immediately flocked to the spot to peck at the grains hurled by the crowd.

The court had directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to seal 51 pigeon-feeding spots in the city on the grounds that their droppings and feathers posed a public health hazard.

But Patel was aghast. “If your children are dying of hunger, can you eat?” she asked.

The couple had taken a taxi from their home in Mumbai’s Matunga to defy the court order.

Two floors above Patel’s flat in Jamnadas Mansion, however, Bhogilal Manilal Parmar is tired of shooing away pigeons.

Outside his home is the decades-old Matunga kabutarkhana. From his window, he can see pigeons swarm over almost every inch of the tree outside.

Parmar has breathing problems, as do his three daughters. One of them recently contracted pneumonia.

A doctor had told him that their respiratory problems were due to the pigeon droppings...

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