HYDERABAD: Association of Hyderabadis and pigeons dates back to the Nawab era. However, with the Nawabs all gone and the city witnessing tumultuous development, the days of pigeons here seem to be numbered now. While several of them have already lost their shelters, a thousand-odd pigeons at Nampally are the latest to join the list of homeless.
For anyone visiting the iconic Nampally railway station, it is almost impossible to not notice the large number of pigeons surrounding a traffic island adjoining the main road. When temperature goes up during the summers people here erect a makeshift shack for pigeons apart from providing tubs of water and grains for them on a daily basis.
However, construction work of the Hyderabad Metro Rail that’s underway near the railway station has rendered thousands of these birds homeless. The famous Kabootarkhana is now occupied.
However, coming to their rescue, one of the pigeon enthusiasts from the locality has now arranged a shelter for them around hundred feet away, abutting municipal guest house building. People here have levelled the abandoned corner at guest house’s entrance to set up the place.
Enthusiasts at the rescue
It was 25-year-old Md Kaleem, a resident of Fathimanagar near Falaknuma, who took the initiative of shifting the Kabootarkhana to its present spot. Kaleem took over the responsibility of feeding pigeons and providing them water from his father Abdul Hameed in 2008.
“When they removed the Kabutarkhana, we were clueless about what to do. The birds have been living here for decades and suddenly cannot go anywhere else,” said Kaleem.
With help from another pigeon enthusiast and friend, Kaleem decided to shift the Kabootarkhana. “It is not that easy. A person has to keep shooing away the birds from their regular spot and keep them hungry. Later, a person has to start offering grains and slowly move them to a new place,” added Kaleem.
Another pigeon enthusiast, Ahmed Hussain, who has spent last 40 years outside the railway station, said what is known as Nampally’s Kabootarkhana today, was decades ago, a small clearing where people offered grains to birds. “After retiring from pulling cycle rickshaw, I now sell pigeon feed,” he added. Kaleem too, sells pigeon-feed near the station.
A confident Kaleem, meanwhile, said, “Officers have told me that we could shift the kabootarkhana back to where it was in another three months. The pigeons here have been the identity of the place.”