PiCAS INTERNATIONAL

 A riot ensued in Mumbai, India, after several boys from the local village of Belpada stoned pigeons that were being fed by residents of Vakratund Towers in Kharghar.  Apparently the village boys started stoning the feeding pigeons and killed one bird.  It appears that the village boys wanted to take the dead pigeon back to their village for food.

Two brothers resident in Vakratund Towers, Vilas and Praveen Sharma, tried to reason with the village boys to stop the killing but their pleas were misunderstood and the boys starting beating them up.  The brothers then went to the local police to register a complaint.  The brothers were taken to Belpada village by the police in order to identify the attackers.  The boys that had killed the pigeon were identified but the police insisted on simply giving the boys a warning rather than arresting them.  

When the police returned the brothers to Vakratund Towers angry residents argued with the police until a mob of some 350 armed villagers from Balpada village were seen approaching the building.  One scared resident said: "We had just come back to the building with the police when we saw 350-odd armed men from the village approaching us.  We all, including the police, ran inside the building for safety."

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Yet another story of a pigeon becoming trapped in netting on the same building in less than a week.  The pigeon was seen hanging from netting installed above the HSBC bank in the UK town of Axminster.  Although this is not the first time birds have become trapped in this netting, no action appears to have been taken against those responsible for installing the netting.

Horrified customers in a cafe opposite the bank watched as the pigeon writhed in distress and cafe owner Gina King said: "The poor thing was distressed and wouldn’t stop flapping."  Members of the public called the RSPCA, a UK-based animal protection agency, to report the incident but incredibly the RSPCA did not send an officer out to free the bird until the following day. 

Gina King said:" After quite some time he (the RSPCA officer) managed to cut the netting and push the bird free with a pole and it fell straight to the pavement below with a thud.  Amazingly it was frazzled but still alive."

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German scientists believe that they have discovered how pigeons, and other migratory birds, manage to find their way back to their breeding sites.  It is claimed that tiny iron particles located in the birds’ beaks allow them to navigate by using the earth’s magnetic field, in the same way as we use a compass.  Through the signals picked up via the particles in their beaks the birds are able to assess where they are in relation to their breeding site and navigate the most direct route ‘home’.

There has been much debate on the subject of how pigeons find their way ‘home’, in some cases over huge distances, and this appears to be yet another theory.  One recent theory suggested that pigeons follow roads in order to return ’home’ and in the film ‘Valiant’ it was suggested that pigeons navigate by using the sun and the stars.

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