In 2016, in Jigeesha Thakore Vs Dilip Sumanlal Shah, the Supreme Court upheld a Bombay High Court order prohibiting a family from feeding pigeons even from their own private balcony, stating that “a person cannot feed birds from a flat’s balcony creating nuisance due to droppings and filth for other occupants in a residential society”. Hon’ble Justices U.U. Lalit and Indu Malhotra stated, “If you are living in a residential society, then you have to conduct yourself according to the norms.”
Pigeon feeding is currently banned in Mumbai due to public health concerns over diseases linked to pigeon droppings and damage to heritage structures. The Bombay High Court has ordered the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to enforce this ban, including fines for offenders and the closure of designated feeding spots called ‘kabutar khanas’. An expert committee is also looking into addressing and resolving this critical public health issue.
What these issues reveal, though, is that India has no shortage of compassion or any number of versions and interpretations of it. What it lacks, often disastrously, is ecological literacy. Pushed as ‘kindness’, this behaviour is in fact a socially sanctioned form of ecological harm. It creates stress for the very animals being fed, jeopardizes public health, and causes the deaths of countless other creatures, seen and unseen.
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