Homing pigeon has Chennai link; no China connection

Ongole: A pigeon with a tag on its leg took the public and police in Prakasam district for a ride on Wednesday.

The inquiry by The Hans India revealed that the pigeon has connection with Chennai and not China as people had earlier suspected and the police heaved a sigh of relief.

Recently, the locals and police of Odisha and Chhattisgarh caught pigeons with their legs fitted with tags and various letters and numbers written on them. The ground level police, public and media reported that the pigeons might be from China and were released on a mission of espionage to India as part of modern warfare.

Meanwhile, Mannam Nagaraju of Chimakurthy has been feeding the pigeons at their penthouse for the last few days. He read media reports of the suspected pigeons found in Odisha and other places and was alerted when he spotted a similar pigeon with a tag on its leg on Wednesday morning.

He informed the local police, revenue and media personnel about the pigeon at their penthouse. The revenue and police officials took the bird as the local media started to report that a pigeon with suspected Chinese connection was found in Chimakurthy.

A variety of pigeons were being used as messengers since 2900 BC, a practice initially launched by the Egyptians. The people used to transport them in cages to their destinations, attach the messages on wings or legs and let them go free.

Sensing the earth's magnetic field, the pigeons reach their home within a few hours or maybe in some days. New Zealand introduced the Pigeon-Gram service for the first time in the modern world, in 1896 as they can fly at 50 to 60 kmph with stretches of 25 to 30 kilometres at a time.

Odisha is the only State government that has been maintaining Police Pigeon Service since 1946, the only one of its kind services in the world that helped the department in relief works after various cyclones and during floods.

The homing pigeons are being used by enthusiasts and bird lovers in racing, a sport recognised globally. There are several Homing Pigeon Clubs, Societies and Associations in India, including Andhra Pradesh. The pigeon fanciers and breeders train their birds to return to their loft even after releasing them a few hundred kilometres away.

After they get satisfied with their performance, they register those pigeons for races conducted by clubs and hand them over to the organisers. The clubs, keep those birds in their lofts for a few days, monitor their health with experts and then take them to a longer distance like 200, 400, 500, or 1000 kilometres and release them after tagging their legs with the club initials, year and number of the bird.

The birds that reach the club early win prizes while some of them deviate from the path or some birds become food to eagles and vultures.

The homing pigeon found at Chimakurthy has a tag with AIR-2019-2207. The Hans India approached several clubs in Visakhapatnam, Chennai, Ramanathapatnam, Kozhikode and Thrissur and found that the AIR is the initial of All In Racing Pigeon Society located at Chrompet in Chennai.

The society founder SR Gokula Krishnan confirmed that the suspected pigeon participated in the race conducted by them from Nellore in 2019.

He said that if the authorities are ready to hand over the bird to him, he would come and take it.

He felt embarrassed over their lazy pigeon roaming in the surroundings for the last two years and creating tension in the State on Wednesday. After learning about the Chennai connection from The Hans India and speaking to Krishnan, the police also sent a message to the media on the details of the pigeon.