MUMBAI: Even as the tussle between obdurate pigeon feeders and the BMC continued at the Dadar Kabootarkhana, the civic body was more successful at other kabootarkhanas in the city, collecting ₹68,700 from 142 persons till Sunday. At the GPO Kabootarkhana at CSMT, barely a handful of pigeons were seen fluttering about on Monday evening, pecking at the non-existent grains at the feeding spot.
Unsurprisingly, the most fines—51—were collected from the Dadar Kabootarkhana, amounting to a whopping ₹22,200, 32% of the total fines collected. Nevertheless, a large crowd, featuring many women, congregated at the kabootarkhana in the afternoon to pursue their goal of getting the space to remain open for pigeons and pigeon feeders.
While the plastic sheet thrown over the Grade II heritage structure and the BMC staff on site inhibited people from throwing grain, the nearby Jain temple arranged for water for the pigeons. This attracted the birds there, and a few were even ritually worshipped by the pigeon feeders.
“Around 980 innocent pigeons have died at the Dadar Kabootarkhana,” claimed Sandeep Desai, a member of the Dadar Kabootarkhana trust. Desai went on to throw a warning at the BJP. “The party has come to power everywhere where there are Jains, Gujaratis and Marwadis,” he said. “Now they are backtracking and stabbing us in the back. If the government had the will, they would reverse the court order.”
The Bombay high court order, which came last week, ordered the BMC to register FIRs against individuals found feeding pigeons. Justices Girish Kulkarni and Arif Doctor expressed frustration at the continued violations despite their earlier refusal to grant interim relief to pigeon feeders. “If they don’t want to follow the rule of law, then the law should catch up with them,” the bench remarked, adding that such acts constituted a public nuisance and endangered human life.
The BMC said it was following the affidavit submitted to the court, which stated the medical science-backed fact that pigeon droppings contribute to serious respiratory illnesses such as hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP). Uncontrolled public pigeon feeding has allegedly increased the population of the birds and led to a rise in respiratory illnesses in the city.
After Dadar, the H West ward collected the second-largest tranche of fines for the kabootarkhana near Bandra Talao— ₹7,500 from 15 persons. T ward collected another ₹6,500 from 13 offenders. ₹6,000 was collected from P East ward, featuring five kabootarkhanas in Malad East. P South, in Goregaon West, collected ₹5,500 in fines from 11 persons. A ward, home to the GPO kabootar khana, fined eight people and collected ₹4,000.
Even as a user of social media site X complained about the persisting kabootarkhana outside Jogeshwari East station, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis announced that he would hold a meeting on Tuesday to discuss the subject along with the issue of the Supreme Court-mandated transfer of an ill elephant from a Kolhapur Jain shrine to a rescue and rehab centre in Jamnagar, which the Jain shrine was demanding back.
The Jain community has threatened to hold a peaceful protest at the Dadar Kabootarkhana, followed by a peace rally on August 10 and an indefinite hunger strike if the court verdict is not in their favour. The next compliance hearing is scheduled for August 7, where the court will review medical data from KEM Hospital and enforcement reports from the BMC and Mumbai police.