The Royal Pigeon Society on Sunday held a celebration in honour of the first recorded homing pigeon in the country, aptly named ‘Mr Miracle’. Mr Miracle is the first recorded homing pigeon to have travelled from Delhi to Chennai. As pigeon sports go, the races are decided based on distance and the birds are taken away from home by rail or road, to be liberated to fly home to their owners. Miracle’s owner, Athi Narayan, a legal advisor reveals, “Miracle came back to our home in Choolai in 65 days, as opposed to the stipulated 28 and I’ve chosen her for these races because I know that she has the capacity. She usually exceeds time, but always returns.”He softly whistles to Miracle to face the camera for photographs and despite the boom of the speaker and a room full of unfamiliar faces, it seems that her attention is only focussed on this call. Apparently, every domesticated pigeon is tagged shortly after it is born with a metal ‘birth ring’ attached to its foot, that carries details of identification, such as a number and the owner’s name. Before a race, a rubber tag is attached to the metal ring with a contestant number that is not known to the fellow contestant owners, enrolling their birds in the race. This is used to ensure the bird’s return and also that there is no foul play. President of the Society, B Ravi says proudly, “We have the support of 10 pigeon clubs in the city here to celebrate with us on this occasion, and Miracle in this one year alone, has travelled 6,000-7,000 kms.” KP Ramaprasad, a pigeon enthusiast from Bangalore said, “The name Miracle is inspired from a famed bird which won the Barcelona International Pigeon Race two years running in 1962 and 1963.” The bird made history and was titled ‘The Barcelona Miracle’.[email protected]
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