Mumbai shoos: ‘Kabootar, Ja Ja, Ja’
- Quaid Najmi
- Aug 4
- 3 min read

Mumbai: After centuries of uneventful feeding of pigeons, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has cracked down on the practice, angering bird-lovers, activists and followers of Jain religion, co-existing in the country’s commercial capital.
Following an order of the Bombay High Court, the BMC first covered the famed Kabutarkhana, Dadar, with plastic sheets, deployed marshals to deter habitual feeders and trained guns on other designated or unofficial pigeon feeding spots across the metropolis.
Among other things, the high court has banned the ‘jivdaya’ activity and on July 31 directed the civic body to take stringent action, including lodging FIRs on those who blatantly continue the feeding despite the bar.
Apparently irked by the civic assault, Maharashtra Minister for Skill Development shot off an open missive to the BMC Commissioner Bhushan Gagrani, urging him for alternatives.
Earlier, Higher & Technical Education Minister Uday Samant informed the state legislature of the government’s plans to shut down all the 51 designated ‘Kabutarkhanas’ in Mumbai, some also having heritage value.
Though feeding birds, especially pigeons is an accepted norm among most communities, it has special significance for Jains as ‘jivdaya’ (non-violence as compassion for all the living) is a central tenet of Bhagwan Mahavir Jain’s principles of life.
Existing for centuries in Mumbai, since the past few decades, eyebrows have been raised over pigeon-feeding as it has led to unchecked growth in the population of these ‘symbols of peace’, estimated at between 150-200 pc.
Recent studies have indicated that pigeons are carriers of various airborne diseases that can harm local biodiversity and pose public health risks.
Pigeon droppings have bacteria causing respiratory problems, drivers, especially two-wheelers in the vicinity of the ‘kabutariyas’ face dangers and large numbers of these birds concentrated in some localities drive away other avians, besides the poo staining or damaging important buildings or monuments.
‘Recycling’ pigeons for a living!
Pigeon feeding is a familiar sight near the 51-odd Jain temples or certain other places of worship in Mumbai, where it is now banned, and other major cities now mull the same.
In Mumbai and other cities, there are professional ‘pigeon sellers’ who bring these birds and hawk them at strategic locations near Jain temples, minting money from the single stock.
Many Jains - as a religious responsibility - whip out wads of currency to buy the birds, and then ask the seller to ‘release’ them from captivity as the client experiences a spiritual halo for his compassionate good deed, and leaves.
However, barely minutes later, the entire flock of pigeons returns to the same seller who again ‘jails’ them in the cages, awaiting the next devout Jain to pay up and give them wings of freedom…!
Bollywood fans recall the famed scene in the blockbuster "Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge" (1995) of the villainous Amrish Puri feeding pigeons by cajoling, 'auh, auh, auh'...
Later, even the besotted Shah Rukh Khan joins him, with a romantically sinister motive - melt Puri's heart to win his sweetheart Kajol...and succeeds !
Two decades ago, even Trafalgar Square in London barred it, but pigeon feeding reportedly continues near St. Peter’s Square flanking Apolistic Palace - the Pope’s residence in The Vatican (Rome, Italy), with even some Popes known to extend their generous hands to feed and bless the birds.
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