Pigeon‑rearing survives
- Small groups near Jama Masjid still train homing pigeons using techniques passed down from the Mughal era. - Trainers practise long‑distance navigation and communal care as part of a therapeutic urban pastime. - Reporters documented the activity in recent photo features that frame it as a living heritage within Delhi's dense lanes ( ).
In Old Delhi, small groups near Jama Masjid are still training homing pigeons in a Mughal-era practice that has survived into 2026. (reuters.com) Reuters reported on April 21 that Azhar Udeen, 30, gathers with his younger brother and friends on a terrace near Jama Masjid and releases more than 120 pigeons of different breeds each day. The birds are fed, flown in formations and sometimes raced. (reuters.com) Al Jazeera’s photo feature from April 21 identified the pastime by its local name, kabootarbaazi, and showed trainers including Mohammed Rashid, known as “Rambo,” working with flocks from rooftops in the old quarters of Delhi. (aljazeera.com) The practice persists in the lanes around Jama Masjid, the mosque Shah Jahan built between 1644 and 1656 in the Mughal capital of Shahjahanabad, now Old Delhi. That location ties the hobby to the same imperial city where it was once patronized by Mughal rulers. (britannica.com, reuters.com) Reuters said practitioners train pigeons to navigate long distances, and Udeen said he learned by watching his grandfather and then an ustad, or teacher. The same report said Mughal kings kept flocks, taught them to fly in formation and used them as messengers. (reuters.com) Al Jazeera described pigeon-keeping as a therapeutic and communal escape for residents dealing with Delhi’s pace and congestion. Its photographs showed men feeding, handling and releasing birds together on tightly packed rooftops. (aljazeera.com) The sport has been fading for years as costs rise and patronage shrinks. The Hindu reported in December 2023 that kabootarbaazi was already on the wane in Old Delhi because breeding pigeons had become expensive and traditional backers had thinned out. (thehindu.com) That makes the April 2026 photo reports less about a revival than about survival: a few rooftops, a few keepers and a skill still being taught bird by bird in the shadow of Jama Masjid. (reuters.com, aljazeera.com)
