Bhopal: The Bhopal police are looking for 35 pigeons, some of them champion flyers, who were allegedly stolen from the terrace of a resident of the city’s Srinagar Colony over the weekend.
Pigeon lover and breeder Junaid Qureshi, 22, told ThePrint that he had gone to check on his pigeons late Friday night as it was biting cold. “I gave them some warm water to drink and covered the cage with a warm blanket,” he said.
When he went up around 7 am the next morning, all 35 of them—33 white and two black pigeons—had been stolen. The lock to the cage was opened with a key and the blanket was taken too, said Junaid, who has been raising pigeons for the last 11 years.
He frantically searched for the birds, and even scoured the weekend animal markets in Bhopal. But they had vanished without a trace, he said.
The college student then informed the Gautam Nagar police station, and registered a case of theft. Head Constable Bhupendra Ojha, the investigating officer, said footage from the CCTV cameras near Junaid’s house was scanned but nothing was found.
“As per the complaint, the pigeons have some red and yellow rings around their legs. We are trying to trace them via this identification mark,” Ojha told ThePrint. There has been no progress in the case so far.
An injured pigeon triggered Junaid’s passion
Junaid said his interest in pigeons developed when he was just 11 years old after he tended to an injured bird that had fallen on the balcony of their two-storey home. He nursed the bird to health and released it in two weeks.
“But it kept coming back,” Junaid said, as he started learning about the species. “I was told they live for over two decades and do not leave a home if they like it. I began with that one pigeon and over the years the flock grew to 35,” he said.
The hobby grew into passion and even took a toll on his studies. “I would miss college to take care of the pigeons and spent days with them. The cage I prepared for the birds was 12 by 8 feet, large enough for four people to sleep in,” said the first-year student, pursuing Bachelor of Commerce.
In 2023, one of Junaid’s pigeons won the first prize in the High Pigeon Flying Competition—it flew for a straight 11.50 hours and won Rs 50,000 in cash. “I have been participating in these competitions for the last few years and my pigeons are always in the top three. Three months before the competition, I feed them almonds while on normal days they build stamina on a diet of stale roti and pure ghee,” Junaid said.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)