Pigeons Faster Than Technology

Image Courtesy: picsdigger.com

A few days back, an interesting bit of news startled me. We talk so much about how technology has overtaken everything else in our lives. And here was this piece of news that told otherwise. Nature in the form of pigeons had overtaken technology (in the form of broadband) in a race! It was found that Rory, the homing pigeon travelled faster than the internet broadband in delivering a message.

That proves it. 'Nature' technology may be more efficient than man-made technology and apart from being more economical and non-polluting, as in the case of these homing pigeons. In fact, there are groups that still count on homing pigeons, as one of the means to earn their income, even in today's times of fast paced technology. One such family is that of the Ashars in Mumbai and they have not just been into homing in on pigeons since generations. They have also been taking good care of them, providing timely vaccinations, fooding and comfortable shelter and refuge from dogs and cats in the kabutarkhana.

The practice of using homing pigeons to deliver messages is ancient. In recent times, there has been a debate on whether pigeons are 'qualified' enough to be used as opposed to e-mail and telephone, especially by the higher authorities.

Pigeons and internet have their own advantages and limitations respectively. If pigeons can fall prey to hawks and hunters, the Net connection, too comes with its own set of risks such as a Net Virus, hacking and the computer crashing. For instance, pigeons have been found to be extremely reliable during natural calamities like cyclones and even during wars. At the same time, there's a risk of them getting caught in the process. In May, this year, a Pakistani pigeon was arrested by Indian security officials for alleged spying. For that matter, even technology may fail during a natural turbulence or an internet spying attempt through hacking may be de-coded and failed.

In light of the various advantages that homing pigeons have over Internet, their use should not be made completely obsolete and can be considered in certain delivery cases, if not all. Nothing comes with complete guarantee. Not even technology.