India, Aug. 22 -- At a time when there is a raging controversy surrounding the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC's) recent actions to shut down 51 kabutarkhanas across the city, there is also a quieter, determined story of a nonagenarian activist whose persistence led to the closure of one such pigeon-feeding enclosure in Khar West three years ago.

For nearly a decade, 95-year-old Anandini Thakoor, former chairperson of the H West Federation and managing trustee of the Khar Residents Association (KRA), led a relentless campaign to shut down the kabutarkhana near Khar market, following numerous complaints from residents, particularly senior citizens and children, about respiratory ailments.

What was once a bustling pigeon feeding...