New Delhi, March 27: A chip on a leg, a ring on the other and a blue scrawl on its white wing – Gujarat police are in a flap over the curious case of a fearless pigeon and have begun a probe.
A pigeon drinking water from a bowl on a Sintex tank near a jetty close to Dwarka has sparked a fair bit of panic on the Gujarat coast, and involved everyone from the police and the coast guard to the state Marine Police and the Forensic Science Laboratory in Gandhinagar.
News has even travelled up to the Union home ministry.
“It is to inform you that on 20 March 2015 about 1600 hours around five nautical miles from the shore of Salaya Essar jetty, which is under construction, one pigeon was found drinking water from the bowl under the syntax (sic) tank,” said a report sent by the Dwarka district SP to the additional director-general of police (anti-terrorist squad) in Ahmedabad on March 24.
Apparently, a security guard of Salaya Essar’s security wing spotted the bird and “he found that the pigeon was not afraid of him and not going away”. So he decided to catch hold of it.
The report said the pigeon had “a chip on one leg and a number 28733 ring on another leg”. There were also some “writings” on the wings of the pigeon in “Urdu/Arabic language”.
Suspicion aroused, the guard immediately informed his superior, and the duo decided to keep the pigeon with them for the time being.
The next day, they tipped off coast guard officials of nearby Vadinar and handed over the “suspect” for investigation. A day after that, the coast guard intimated the Vadinar Marine police station.
“The in-charge police officer made the station diary entry No. 12/2015 at 1215 hours and took charge of the pigeon, called up the FSL officer for further investigation and took out the ring and chip from legs of pigeon and sent it to the FSL Gandhinagar for further investigation,” the report said.
Forensic scientists on the job discovered that the chip had “BENJING DUAL” written on it. “By searching on Google, we found that it is used for pigeon race,” the report said.
“There is one word written on the wing of pigeon in blue writing in Urdu/Arabic language which means ‘Rasul-ul-Allah’ was also found out.”
Still suspicious, the police called in forest officers for their opinion. “Such pigeons are found mostly in northern part of India and used for race in foreign countries,” the report said.
“This is primary information we have and further investigation is going on,” the superintendent of police, district Devbhumi Dwarka, said. Copies have been sent to the IGP in charge of Gujarat’s coastal security and to the DIG of Rajkot range.
Would North Block follow up? Officials refused comment.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)