In Srinagar city, during my young days, wooden pigeon towers, as high as 40 feet and above were seen erected on roof tops in abundance invariably catch the eyes of pedestrians. The structures were crafted to attract pigeons, providing them nesting spaces and facilitating the collection of their valuable droppings. Pigeon keepers were known as ‘Kuotar Baz’. These pigeon fanciers would enjoy their flying in circles in open sky and would watch them for hours.
Raising pigeons on roof tops in cities is a practice that has been around for a long time. Some people raise pigeons as a hobby or recreation purposes. Pigeon keeping can be a fulfilling’s and enjoyable past time, said one of our most distinguishing and learned English teacher late professor M.S. Want who too was a pigeon enthusiast, would keep and train the relatively large pigeon with a majestic appearance.
I very well remember, Dr. Want inviting me to his palatial residence at Wantapora Srinagar in the year 1970 where he showed me the Serbian bred high flyer breed pigeons. Dr. Want explained me in length about the characteristics of each varieties of the pigeons he possessed. Serbian highflyer is characterized by long circle flights upto 12 hours, at a height of 400 feet and above. Among the varied pigeon species Prof. Want had, were the king pigeon, Majestic in appearance, primarily bred for food. They are bigger in size than homing Pigeons.
Since time immemorial, pigeons have been considered to be important symbols of communication and messengers of peace and loyalty. During my visit to Mauritius in December 2019, I saw the pink pigeon (Nesoenas the rarest pigeon bred by the owner Mayeri) of a 5 star property. During an informal chat with her, she said that the pink pigeon nearly became extinct in the year 1970s, 1980, and in 1990s but her personal tireless efforts helped the survival of pink pigeon. She further added that Mauritians are unfortunate to have lost dodo bird that became the most famous example of human induced extinction.
Unfortunately, the species was wiped out less than 200 years after its discovery. The birds were discovered by Portuguese sailors in 1507. As dodos had no natural predators, so they were unafraid of humans. As humans settled on the island, loss of habitat threatened the birds, because of their tasty and fresh meat. The last dodo was killed in 1681, and the species was lost forever and became extinct.
Fortunately pigeons and doves are seen everywhere on earth, except for the driest areas of the Sahara desert, Antarctica and its surrounding islands. According to ornithologist Bikram Grewal, the population of rock pigeons, the common species seen in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, even in Srinagar city has increased immensely due to easy availability of food.
In one of the citizen science programmes launched to monitor common bird species of India, common pigeon topped the list with house crow following at number two. Brazil has more pet birds than any other country. In every 3 households in Brazil has a pet bird. 60 million pet birds are reported there thus out numbering the pet dogs. There are places in the world where people eat pigeons. Recently on my visit to Iraq, people in selected restaurants love eating pigeons. One of the restaurant owners told me pigeon meat is a delicacy and is served both grilled and roasted, loaded with spices. Late Prof. S.M. Das, the imminent Scientist and former H.O.D of Zoology Kashmir University accompanying us to Bombay in the year 1970 for an educational tour replied to a question, what does pigeon tasts like. ‘It tasted like eels snakes, frogs, rabbits etc., and pigeons are no exception. ‘I have tasted all of them’. He said
In Thailand Papya market I saw roasted infant pigeons on sale that I was told taste amazingly delicious. A great treat for foodies. In china pigeon meat is a part of celebratory banquets for holidays such as Chinese New Year, usually served deep-fried. It is interesting to note that pigeons mate for life and grieve a lost mate. They are intelligent, loyal, social birds. Carrier Pigeons saved many lives on the first and second world war and have been recognized for their bravery. During Mughal era, carrier pigeons were the unsung heroes of communication networks. They were also used for commerce, navigation mostly in the armed forces. During the siege of Paris in 1870-187 citizens would send messages by pigeons, Genghis khan established pigeon relay posts across occupied countries.
Akbar, the great was very found of pigeon-flying and had some 20,000 pigeons, he called the past time ishkbazi or love play. Abul – Fazal historian and military commander of Mugal Emperor Akbar, and author of the Akbar-nama, says that Akbar’s pleasure at receiving “Fairy-flying’ pigeons from the Mughal’s home land Farghana in central Asia, along with a skilled pigeon – fancier, Habib. Mohammad Musavi Wali, a poet from Khurasan, who migrated to Hyderabad, has written extensively on pigeons. His book (Kabutarnama) consists of a poem of 163 couplets, followed by a short prose that explains the different types of pigeons, their colours and characteristics, and their pattern flying.
Prof. S.M. Das in one of his lectures during our P.G. Classes said that Darwin was himself a keen pigeon fancier and set up a breeding loft at his home in the village Downe, kent Darwin and learned much from the different breeds which he owned.
As Rumi has said, every bird will follow its species so are homing pigeon.
(Author is a columnist and can be reached at: [email protected])
