The Supreme Court on Monday said that feeding birds on the balcony is not allowed as it creates nuisance to the other residents through droppings and filth. They refused to change the order where a woman was restricted to feed birds from her balcony in a high rise building in Mumbai.
A bench of Justices UU Lalit and Indu Malhotra said that people should adhere to the rules of a residential society.
So, the new order is applicable to all the high rises in the Delhi-NCR. It has been often observed that people feed birds and as a result, the societies normally sees presence of lots of birds.
There has been conflicting views on the issue of feeding birds. Many people argue that feeding birds has been a part of the culture for so long now.
Talking to City Spidey, D K Sinha, who lives in a high rise in Greater Noida West and love feeding birds in his flat’s balcony in Supertech Eco Village 2 said this order has two sides.
“At one side, feeding birds is not crime and people do it to protect the lives of birds. On the other side, when the number of these birds increase, people living in surrounding areas or passing by find some problem,” Singh added. greater Noida news
He continued, “I can’t refute because it is an Apex court’s judgment but I can only opine that the birds will find difficult to habitat when people will stop feeding them in the balcony.”
“Especially, during the summer, several birds come to my balcony in search of water when the temperature surges to highest levels. I put a pot of water to in my balcony so that they can get water. But if somebody says, he has any problem with this, then it has to be sorted through healthy conversation,” he added.
Singh, who is a native of Bihar, is living in the society for last three years. Ever since he came in the society, he noticed that a group of birds frequently visit the society. It drove him to put a pot of water in his balcony. He also made a shelter for birds like ‘Gauraia’ so that they come and live. But, they have not used this shelter so far.
Vikrat Tongad, an Environment Conservationist and a resident of Greater Noida, who also run a campaign for feeding of birds in urban area in Delhi-NCR, was of the view that feeding birds have being a part of culture in human being.
“I see no problem in feeding of birds in high rise societies. Suppose, someone living at top floor offering water or something to feed them in balcony, people living in below flats object it because of droppings on cloths and floor,” he said.
“Mostly, pigeons come and sprinkle water on their body and release droppings which is harmful for skin also. Many people have even started using Pigeon detectors in their balconies. Pigeons make shelters on top of AC or in any corner of the flat. We all need to feed birds but it should be done in grounds, parks or anywhere where human beings are not directly affected,” Tongad said.
A nature lover and environment activist in Dwarka working on revival of water bodies and saving biodiversity in the area, Diwan Singh said, “Feeding birds in balcony is not bad unless it harms the ecosystem and create imbalance.”
“Like such practice of feeding is not good for the birds as it promotes basically pigeons. The domination of pigeons is something which cause worst suffering for other species like sparrow. So it should also be taken into concern,” he added.
