The motto of the State Police of Orissa in eastern India, might be: Never without my pigeon. Since 1946, about 800 pigeons provide the mail service between the 400 police stations in the region over several thousand square kilometers. A postal service that is now threatened the Internet and email. The Indian Ministry of Finance says these "factors of the air" are now unnecessary and too expensive, even if the cost of maintaining each of these docile birds does not exceed 8 cents per day. Side of the defenders of pigeons, is praised their speed and ability to deliver messages in any circumstance, especially when the country is hit by cyclones and floods.
"The passenger pigeon (Columbia livia ) is reliable, because high to be messenger," says Chris Arnold, a researcher at the laboratory Molecular and Cellular Biophysics of the CNRS in Grenoble and pigeon enthusiast. "Contrary to modern means of communication, these pigeons ensure total privacy. Its use in time of war has shown. "
Continuing a tradition of five centuries, the forty men of a special corps of police of Orissa drive the pigeons when they have reached four weeks. In adulthood, they are capable of processing a flight of 500 km. But nearly eight years, government authorities are putting pressure on the police of Orissa. Until then, tradition has prevailed.
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