Maharashtra Govt Forms 12-Member Committee To Study Pigeon Feeding & Public Health Impact

The Maharashtra government has constituted a 12-member committee to study the diet of pigeons and its impact on public health.

The 12-member committee, headed by Joint Director (II) of the state Public Health Department, Dr. Vijay Kandewad, has seven members from the Medical and Health Department, three from the Animal Welfare Department and one each from the Urban Development and Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS). The committee has been asked to submit its report within a month.

The members of the committee are Jitendra Bhople, director of the state town planning department, Kishor Rithe, director of the BHNS, Dr Pradeep Deshmukh, Dean and head of the department of community medicine at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (Nagpur), Dr Shivaji Pawar, deputy director of animal husbandry and member secretary of Maharashtra Animal Welfare Board, Dr SK Dutta, secretary of the Animal Welfare Board (India), Dr Sujit Ranjan (Pulmonology), Dr Ameeta Athawale, Pulmonologist, working with the BMC, Dr Manisha Madkaikar, director of ICSR Mumbai, Dr RJ Zende, professor in veterinary science, Dr Shilpa Patil, professor of microbiology in Grant Medical College and Daksha Shah, executive medical officer, BMC.

The state committee on diet of pigeons has been mandated to work only on health-related issues. However, the committee will also decide whether controlled diet is possible. If possible, it will identify places where pigeons can be fed and formulate rules and regulations for the same.

The committee has been constituted on the basis of three writ petitions filed before the Bombay High Court (HC), which had on August 13 directed the state government to appoint a committee of experts on the impact of pigeons on public health.