Where avian friends come back for more

At quarter past six at dawn, a large flock of pigeons perch on top of huts bordering the Besant Nagar beach and wait.

After a good game of volleyball, a bunch of men drag sacks, open them and take a handful of grains from them. Within seconds, hundreds of flapping pigeons shift into view. “Every day, about 15 of us feed 150 kg of grains like wheat or millet to thousands of pigeons,” said B. Sunil Kumar.

Collective exercise

Six years ago, as a casual exercise, each of them got some grains and fed a few pigeons on the beach. Last year, they decided to make it a collective exercise every day, he added “We all know each other because we have been playing volleyball. Since some of us were feeding separately, we wondered why not do it on a larger scale,” he said.

They spend a few thousands every day to buy the grains. Once a week, they buy the grains and store it in one of the houses. “Our grandfathers in Rajasthan have been feeding pigeons. So, we thought we can do it here. It makes us all happy,” said P. Mukesh.

Soon, they plan to have a small, cement structure for birds to drink water. “The heat is going to get worse and birds certainly need more water. We already installed a huge bowl, but it was stolen from the beach. Now, we are going to place another one,” Mr. Mukesh added.