India, Oct. 1 -- Professor Colin Jerolmack never paid much attention to pigeons until one defecated on him. In his 2013 book the Global Pigeon he, however, studied the journey of pigeons and feeding bans across London, Venice and New York. Professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies at the New York University, he has often been called 'the Pigeon guy' in American publications. As Mumbai and other Indian cities face an impasse over the feeding of pigeons that has often evoked very strong emotions, in an interview with Mayura Janwalker, Jerolmack discusses the synanthropes that, he feels, have been judged unfairly by humans.

Q: There is an impasse in Mumbai and many other parts of India about feeding pigeons. On the one hand there is ...