Police in India still use pigeons to relay messages.
Pigeons tend to have poor reputations, treated as winged pests that are shooed away from park benches and windowsills. However, these sometimes-annoying avians — which were first domesticated by humans at least 5,000 years ago — are also known for being adept messengers. That’s why police in Odisha, a coastal state in eastern India, have used pigeons to relay important messages in situations where modern lines of communication no longer work. About 150 homing, racing, and carrier pigeons make up the region’s pigeon patrol. They begin their training at just 5 to 6 weeks old, and can fly up to 500 miles at a time, at top speeds of 34 miles per hour.
Fleets of carrier pigeons aren’t at all new to India. The feathered couriers were used throughout the country for centuries, and in more recent history by police stations during British colonial rule. Odisha launched its official bird messaging service in 1946 as an experiment, since the region had no telephone access. The program’s earliest pigeons were tasked with regularly transporting messages written on lightweight onion-skin paper between police stations in a state that spanned more than 60,000 square miles. Even with today’s accessible phone and internet services, there’s been no rush to retire the courier pigeons. While the birds tend to serve a ceremonial role during functions of state, handlers keep the pigeons trained and ready to respond in natural disasters when communication towers are wiped out, and the birds are believed to have helped save lives during catastrophic flooding in 1982 and in the aftermath of a super cyclone in 1999.
The demise of the passenger pigeon has served as a century-long warning about the role humans play in the natural world. At one time, the species dominated the skies of North America, accounting for 25% to 40% of the entire American bird population. But by the early 1900s — following decades of overhunting and habitat destruction — only a few passenger pigeons survived in captivity. One in particular gained notoriety: Martha. Named for the nation’s original First Lady, Martha Washington, the pigeon was housed at the Cincinnati Zoological Garden, where crowds regularly gathered to view the bird that would eventually become the last living passenger pigeon. Amazingly (and likely with the help of regular medical attention) Martha far surpassed her winged counterparts’ average life span of 15 years, living to the ripe age of 29. Today, it’s possible to still get a glimpse of her at the Smithsonian, where she has been taxidermied and is occasionally on display.
