Many years ago, when my maid mentioned she was finding it very difficult to clean the balconies due to pigeons, I initially thought it was just because it was dry and messy. However, when she mentioned that she was experiencing allergies and health issues, I became alarmed and decided to read up on it. I was shocked to learn how pigeon droppings pose a significant health risk.
“People tend to like pigeons because they get domesticated easily and keep returning to the person who feeds them grains,” said a pigeon seller in Chandni Chowk’s kabootar bazaar, or pigeon market. “No other bird gives that kind of loyalty.” He added that many also equate the act of feeding with “punya ka kaam,” or a good deed.
The practice of feeding the birds has led to unnatural spikes in their population. Their proximity to humans poses grave risk to pulmonary health. Most doctors and health professionals, on the other hand, see birds as pests. “Pigeons are sometimes called flying rats,” said Dr. Abi Vanak, director of the Centre for Policy Design at the Bengaluru-based ATREE. “If humans are artificially increasing the population through feeding, which is creating problems for other people, then clearly one cannot argue that the feeding can be equated with doing good.”
Hypersensitivity pneumonitis “is not an infection but the way the body reacts to certain allergens or chemicals that are present in pigeon droppings, which stimulates the immune response in the body and particularly impacts the lungs,” said Dr. Vivek Singh, director of pulmonology and lung transplant at Medanta, Gurugram. The symptoms of this disease include persistent dry cough, breathlessness, fatigue, and loss of appetite, among many others.
Let’s trust the doctors and the data coming from the patient load due to our fatal love for pigeons.
