NEW DELHI – A small community of practitioners in the heart of India’s capital is maintaining the centuries-old Mughal tradition of kabootarbaazi, the specialized art of rearing and training pigeons to navigate vast distances.
Located in the dense corridors of Old Delhi near Jama Masjid, these devotees preserve a set of avian training skills passed down through generations. The practice persists as a cultural anomaly, operating just kilometers away from the modern, affluent neighborhoods of New Delhi.
For the practitioners, the hobby functions as both a competitive sport and a psychological sanctuary from the city’s urban congestion. At the same time, it operates in the shadow of the city’s evolving urban governance – from heritage protection rules to animal-welfare regulations – that increasingly shape what can and cannot take place on Old Delhi’s rooftops.
Training and Technical Requirements
The process of preparing a flock for long-distance flight is an intensive commitment. According to trainers, it takes nearly four months of dedicated work to ensure birds can fly directly against the wind and return home, a regimen that must be balanced with basic care standards set out in India’s Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.
The training methodology involves:
- The use of whips struck against hard surfaces to create loud noises, prompting the flock to take off and circle higher.
- Intentional frightening of the birds to force them to fly further away from their home base, building stamina and homing instinct.
- Feeding and conditioning for precise formation flying and timed returns.
Trainers say the birds are monitored for exhaustion and illness, with rest days built into the weekly schedule, in part to avoid attracting complaints from neighbors in the densely populated lanes below.
Azhar Udeen, a 30-year-old pigeon keeper, manages a flock of more than 120 pigeons of various breeds. Udeen gathers daily on his terrace with his younger brother and friends to release the birds and oversee their flights, craning their necks toward a sky often crowded with power lines, construction cranes and low-flying commercial aircraft.
“I saw my grandfather doing this when I was a child, and after I grew up, I watched and learned from my ustad [teacher],” Udeen said. “Now it’s my turn to teach the younger ones and make sure this doesn’t disappear from these rooftops.”
Mughal Origins and Historical Utility
The term kabootarbaazi is derived from the Hindi and Urdu words for pigeon. The practice flourished under the patronage of the Mughal rulers who governed India, during which time the hobby was integrated into the social fabric of the nobility and their courtyards.
Historically, these flocks served more than a recreational purpose. The Mughal administration employed trained pigeons as messengers, utilizing their innate navigational abilities to transmit information across distances – a low‑tech communications system that predated the postal services and telegraph networks later introduced under British rule.
Beyond communication, the rulers encouraged the development of formation flying, turning the activity into a display of skill and prestige. In contemporary Delhi, heritage advocates see kabootarbaazi as part of the living culture surrounding Jama Masjid and the walled city, even as municipal plans to modernize Old Delhi’s infrastructure, traffic and housing stock test how such traditions can be accommodated.
The Social Function of Rooftop Gatherings
While the technical aspect of racing and formation flying is central to the hobby, the social environment of the rooftops provides a critical community function. Practitioners describe the gatherings as a therapeutic escape from the pressures of domestic and professional life, and as an informal mentorship network for boys and young men who might otherwise spend evenings in the streets.
“We sit with our friends and students, and all the tensions from our work or homes, all of it disappears, and that’s what the main intention behind pigeon keeping is,” explained Khalifa Mohsin, a dedicated pigeon keeper.
This fellowship creates a sanctuary of peace amid the chaos of Old Delhi, where the shared goal of training the birds fosters a bond between students and their teachers. Informal house rules – covering who is allowed onto the terrace, how late the birds can be flown, and how to handle disputes over lost or captured pigeons – function as a parallel code of conduct alongside municipal by-laws on noise and rooftop access.
The tradition continues to be practiced daily on the terraces surrounding the Jama Masjid area. For now, kabootarbaazi survives in a delicate balance: hemmed in by real-estate pressures, animal-welfare expectations and modern communications technology, yet sustained by a small group of guardians who insist that Old Delhi’s skyline still has room for the circling silhouettes of their birds.
