The Bombay High Court on Wednesday constituted a committee to examine the BMC’s decision to close kabutarkhanas across the city and to ascertain their impact on the larger issue of public health. A division bench of Justices Girish S Kulkarni and Arif S Doctor was hearing writ petitions filed by animal rights activists and trustees of the Jain temple adjoining the Dadar Kabutarkhana Trust, challenging the BMC’s crackdown on kabutarkhanas. This crackdown followed an oral directive issued by the Maharashtra government last month to shut them down.

Contrary to the previous hearing on August 7, when the BMC did not appear before the court to clarify whether its decision to ban feeding at kabutarkhanas had been revoked, the civic body, on Wednesday, informed the Bombay High Court that it would allow controlled feeding of pigeons at designated spots and timings between 6 am and 8 am. However, the court directed the civic body to first issue a public notice and invite objections to the applications made by the petitioners, as the matter “cannot be decided without considering the fate of the public at large.”

Pigeons around the Dadar kabutarkhana have been flocking to roofs and terraces of the buildings nearby. PIC/KIRTI SURVE PARADE