NewzVille Desk
The world’s only operational Odisha Police Pigeon Service was showcased on Monday at the ‘Naya Sanhita Exhibition’ organized at Unit-3, IDCO Exhibition Grounds in Bhubaneswar. On the occasion, 18 Belgian Homing Pigeons were sent from Bhubaneswar to Cuttack in two batches.
These pigeons flew through the sky carrying important messages through small capsules tied to their legs, reviving the memory of the old ‘pigeon post’.
These Belgian Homing Pigeons have a unique physical structure. They have a natural iron structure in their beak. Which helps in detecting the earth’s magnetic field and acts as a natural navigation device. Due to this unique physical structure, the pigeons accurately find their target even from miles away.
Odisha Police started this tradition in 1946. Â They started by receiving 200 pigeons from the American Army. Initially started as an experiment in the mountainous areas of Koraput district, this communication system later grew into a large network of over 700 paras. When modern radio and telephone services were disrupted during the Banki floods of 1982 and the cyclone of 1999, this ‘para dak’ became the only means of communication with the outside world.
The exhibition reveals that in April 1948, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru sent a letter from Sambalpur to Cuttack. While Nehru’s car took 7 hours to reach Cuttack, this winged messenger delivered the message in just 5 hours. These paras can fly at a speed of about 55 kilometers per hour.
Even in today’s era of e-mail, the Odisha government has preserved this 70-year-old tradition as a sweet old memory. Currently, these paras are being given special training at the Cuttack and Angul Police Training Centres. The service operates in three categories: Static (single-faced), Boomerang (double-faced) and Mobile.
This is a tribute by the Odisha Police to the 32 Paras who received medals for bravery in World War II and the thousands of Paras who helped during the disasters in Odisha.
