GHMC veterinary wing faces uphill task in discouraging citizens from feeding pigeons

HYDERABAD: Feeding pigeons, once a Nizami hobby has turned into a major problem for the GHMC veterinary department to deal with. The growing number of pigeons in the city and the encouragement these winged friends receive from the citizens has turned into a menace and the officials are trying every trick in their sleeve to discourage new feeding points in the city.

“Pigeons could cause lung infections and their excreta could also cause health problems. But people are feeding them at different places in the city and few people started selling pegion feed near these points,” said Dr Vivekanand, Deputy Director (Veterinary), Khairatabad zone of GHMC speaking to NewsTAP on Thursday.

Dr Chakrapani Reddy, Director of Khairatabad division, and Vivekanand embarked on an awareness campaign at the auto rickshaw stand under the Kundan Bagh flyover bridge. They found out that the autorickshaw drivers feed the birds with their leftover food and locals also feed the pigeons.

“We have counseled the locals and the autorickshaw drivers for over a week. We tried to tell everyone that pigeons need not be fed as they could fetch their food as they could fly long distances,” Vivekanand said. The GHMC team also displayed posters and banners urging people not to feed the pigeons. The team impressed upon the locals to remove the water bowls put up by the locals for the birds.

However, within a few days, the people start feeding the pigeons again much to the disappointment of the GHMC team. Dr Abdul Wakil, of GHMC West Zone, said that several apartment complexes in the city were facing trouble with the bird menace and they had to shell down money to purchase nets to cover the entire complex.

“Apartment complexes are tailor-made for these birds. There are places where they can build nests and ample leftover food to feed on,” he said. He said that feeding the birds on one hand and netting the apartment complexes would yield no results.

A few years back the GHMC veterinary wing even shifted thousands of birds away from the city. But being a city steeped in the royal culture, the civic authorities could not control the increasing number of pigeons with new feeding points opening up at every place.