India, July 5 -- A day after industries minister Uday Samant said that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) would be instructed to shut all 51 kabutarkhanas (pigeon feeding spots) in Mumbai over health hazards, BMC officials on Friday demolished illegal portions of the Dadar kabutarkhana, including the netting fence around the traffic island where pigeons flock and a covered plastic shed. The officials removed sacks of pigeon feed and cleaned the circle, but feeders returned within a few hours, bringing the pigeons back with them.

"For now, we have only removed the illegal portions of Dadar kabutarkhana," an official from the BMC's G North ward told Hindustan Times. "While the fountain on the traffic island is a heritage structur...