It is 5am, two hours before the competition. Charsi needs to warm up before the race.
Ahmed, who had fed his pigeon almonds and pistachio last evening, now needs him to feel light. Charsi, a highflying pigeon, must feel up to the race. So Ahmed fills up a small syringe with water and empties it into Charsi’s beak, to make him vomit all the extra food he has not digested.
That done, he is given a careful check. His wings are spread open by Ahmed to see if everything is okay. His claws are given a quick massage, any ruffled feathers are smoothened with gentle strokes as he is also given a pep talk to concentrate and not let Ahmed down in the race.
Then, as Charsi is left to contemplate his actions, Ahmed turns his attention to his other pigeons — Cutie, Missile, Kaalu, Toffee, Concord and Rocket — all of whom receive similar treatment.
The umpire reaches the rooftop a little while later. Ahmed’s seven pigeons are all quite ready by then. Get set go! The umpire notes the exact time they are released before running off to another rooftop to witness more action and make notes. The name of the lofts the pigeons are released from are jotted down in one column, their arrival timings will be listed too, along with the distance travelled by each pigeon and at what speed.
Racing pigeons, once associated with Mughal-era decadence, is again gaining popularity in parts of Karachi. And now they have properly adjudicated tournaments and social media pages…
“Some pigeon tournaments feature seven pigeons, some 11,” says Kashan Sardar, who maintains an official pigeon sports page on Facebook titled ‘Pigeon Passion Sports Karachi’, which he takes very seriously and keeps updated with information about the tournaments and their results all over the city.
“But pigeon sports are common in many countries,” Sardar tells Eos. “Besides Pakistan, tournaments also happen in the USA, Canada, Italy, China, Belgium etc,” he says.
“To understand the sport, you first need to understand the pigeon types. You have highflying breeds, low-flying breeds, racer pigeons and fancy pigeons. And all have competitions of their own, though the real sporty ones are the racer pigeons, who have the endurance and stamina to fly long distances. Their pattern of flying is different from the other pigeons. Some are released from Punjab to reach Karachi. Their flying hours may amount to 80, 100 or 125 hours,” he says.
“There are also tournaments for high-flying breeds, also known as the highflying brigade. When they fly, you cannot see them because they fly so high. They are released from their owners’ rooftops or lofts, as we call them in pigeon sports lingo. The tournament organisers have an umpire, known as munsif in Urdu, who supervises the activity by going from one rooftop to the other,” Sardar explains.
“The highflying pigeons must return to the loft they were released from in the morning by evening, no later than 8pm. If they return after that, their arrival timing is not applicable. They are disqualified. Also, if a pigeon arrives before or on time but was found hopping around on the ground, the umpire scratches out its name from the competition as, according to the rules, it must return to its own loft. Its timings won’t be recorded either.
“Meanwhile, there are no fixed arrival timings for low-flying pigeons. But they must show their presence to the umpire within one hour of taking flight,” Sardar elaborates on the different rules of the different competitions.
“There is also a category of fancy pigeons. These comprise the beautiful pigeons, with pretty tail feathers that resemble hand fans. But they have no flying endurance. They are just show pieces. If there is any competition involving them, it is only based on their beauty and upkeep,” he laughs.
Pigeon competitions and tournaments have lured many big names such as businessmen, industrialists, and even politicians. All find it an interesting sport and hobby. “It is an outing, a leisure activity, a chance for get-togethers too,” says Sardar.
“Even the consul general of UAE in Karachi, Dr Bakheet Ateeq Al-Rumeithi, takes an active interest in the sport. He releases pigeons from the rooftop of his personal residence, which is registered as a pigeon point in our tournaments. There used to be a Karachi Pigeon Alliance, under which many tournaments used to be held. But after Dr Bakheet arrived on the scene, he took over and renamed it the Abu Dhabi Alliance, which is an umbrella for many big pigeon tournaments,” he shares.
“And if you turn to other international pigeon lovers, there is also the famous boxer Mike Tyson. His craze for pigeons became known when he travelled to a Polish village to purchase a hundred or so pigeons from a breeder there,” he says.
Danish Khan, chairman of Johar Pigeon Flying Association, under which many clubs are registered, says that pigeon sports have a lot to do with ego boosts. “Keeping pigeons and training them is a hobby that we have inherited from the great Mughals of India, who used pigeons for sending and receiving messages,” he says.
“But some people denounce this hobby. They look down upon it, calling it ‘Qabootar baazi’, which doesn’t sound very nice, and ‘an utter waste of time’. Not that it makes any difference to people like us. But pigeon competitions have also come to be associated with betting and gambling,” he adds.
“There is a true story from our part of the world which I want to share here regarding pigeon sports and the ego associated with it,” he says. “Many years ago, a pigeon competition enthusiast, who prided himself in training his birds, bet that if his pigeon lost a particular race, he would give away his daughter to the winning pigeon owner. And he had to do that. That daughter would herself take pride in telling people how she was married,” he laughs.
“Those were very different times, when daughters never questioned their parents’ decisions regarding finding a match for them. These days though, we stick to prize money,” he chuckles.
The winning pigeons, meanwhile, are often offered to the highest bidder. “One of my club tournaments saw a pigeon owner sell his highflying pigeon for 20 million rupees. Another racer pigeon that crossed a distance of 1,200 kilometres fetched 22 million,” Khan shares.
“It is an understanding between all pigeon lovers and pigeon sport enthusiasts that the birds will be well taken care of. The pigeons need to be taken care of and fed well to take part in competitions. And we work on them like a bodybuilder works on shaping his or her body. We feed them dried fruits, medicinal herbs such as kasturi, which we feed them in very small quantities. Also ambergris, which is whale vomit, and mushk kafoor,” he says.
“Then after a long race, there are also massages prescribed for the pigeons to help them recover soon. We massage their claws. We clean their feathers as they tend to gather a lot of dust,” he adds.
Both Kashan Sardar and Danish Khan feel that pigeon sports have become so big in this country that the government needs to also turn its attention to it. “With the government’s patronage, Pakistan can make a big name in pigeon sports, nationally and internationally, instead of just on social media pages, as it is doing right now,” says Sardar.
“We already have so many politicians involved in pigeon sports. But sadly, we still haven’t been able to shake off the stigmas of ‘kabootar baazi’ as easily as a pigeon shakes off the dust it collects in its feathers during long flights,” concludes Khan.
The writer is a member of staff. X: @HasanShazia
Published in Dawn, EOS, January 19th, 2025
Dear visitor, the comments section is undergoing an overhaul and will return soon.