Super:

Reporter

GORDON TAYLOR

Streets, cars people, pigeons, markets, more

Music

Taylor:  It's eight o'clock in the morning and here amongst the hustle and traffic of Delhi's old quarter, it's feeding time.

pigeons

For a few rupees you can buy some corn, and pamper some of Delhi's most popular residents, the pigeons.

Music.

Taylor:  Nearby lies the insane bustle of Chandi Chawk.

In the shadow of the Moguls Red Fort, it is one of the most crowded places on earth.

Music.

Bird sellers voices.

Taylor:  The narrow lanes are filled with hawkers who seem to be selling everything at once - pants, pots, shoes and pigeons.

Tucked away in one of the many dingy alleyways are the bird sellers. They do a good business. A lot of customers release a bird to gain some spiritual benefit.

Still, many of these hapless pigeons aren't bound for freedom. Most are destined for someone's cooking pot.

Pigeon seller interview, cars, temple, drawing, birds in cages

Man selling pigeons: Anyone can purchase pigeons, just as I am selling the pigeons, to whoever it is - it is to eat for medicine or to throw up and release.

20.12.07

Taylor:  But amidst this chaos is an island of tranquillity. Because this is where a religious order has built a temple. Not only is it a sanctuary for contemplation, but for birds as well.

For here, beside the temple is the only medical facility in the world catering exclusively to winged creatures.

For Dr. Sunil Bhatt it's been a busy day in the casualty department. Now he must prepare for an emergency operation in the hospital's intensive care unit.

Taylor and doctors, cages, bandaging

Taylor:  Do you think this bird will survive? It looks like a very serious injury.

20.54.09

Bhatt: Yes, it will survive.  But there's no point keeping the wing intact.

Taylor:  So what, an amputation, is necessary.

Bhatt: Yes, we'll have to have this.

Taylor:  Like many, this pigeon has been hit by the whirring blades of a ceiling fan. Of course in the hospital the fans are covered with wire mess to prevent the patients coming to a sticky end. But in the rest of Delhi, during the searing summer heat these fans can be killers.

21.04.03

Taylor:  Doctor, I suppose - amputate the wing. Do you think it will survive?

Bhatt: Yes

Taylor:  It will survive?

Bhatt: Yes.

Taylor:  Even without a wing?

Bhatt: Yes.

Bell rung, temple

Bell ringing.

21.30.11

Taylor:  Both the temple and the hospital are run by the Jains, a two and a half thousand year old religion, whose devotees will not kill any animal large or small.

Bell ringing.

Taylor to camera

Taylor:  Some 20,000 birds are treated each year, with day to day operations paid for by the Jains.

21.57.22

The fundamental Jain tenet is a refusal to injure any living thing. Here that reverence for life can mean looking after an injured pigeon. But non-violence is expressed in other more extreme ways as well.

For example cauliflower is shunned because tiny insects lurking in the vegetable's crevices may go unnoticed and be accidentally killed.

Interview with man

Man:  A man can say I'm ill, but all these animals, birds cannot say to anybody. We must care. Animals, birds, and we thought to open a hospital for birds also. Hospitals are there for animals, hospitals are there for human beings, but no hospital for birds.

22.26.18

Temple, people

Music.

22.46.17

praying, doctor

working on hen, parrot, interview with young man

Taylor:  The Jain devotees receive spiritual enrichment, but it's their feathered friends that benefit most.

The hospital runs an outpatients department where owners can bring their injured pets.

Voices.

Bird calling.

Taylor:  Nine-year old Sachin Sharma has visited many times to get treatment for his parrot.

Bird squawking.

Super:  It has a pain, it is wounded in the leg.

Taylor:  It's broken leg has gradually healed and the doctors expect a full recovery.

Bird squawking.

Taylor:  Sunil is lucky his parrot could be treated as an outpatient. Hospital policy dictates that all patients admitted have to be freed, so many owners lose their loved ones.

Cages, hawk, pigeons in cages, man releasing pigeon, pigeons on roof

As well as pigeons there are other birds, large and small, but there is only one pair of hawks, despite the birds being common in Delhi.

23.40.15

The ailing carnivores are receiving treatment, but are limited to a strictly vegetarian diet.

Music.

Taylor:  Once treatment is complete, the bird will come here to the recovery ward on the top floor. In keeping with the precepts of Jainism, it will then be released to freedom.

But some birds always decline the invitation. These malingerers, affectionately called scroungers by hospital staff, are never driven off.

Perhaps the birds are only exercising judicious caution. Away from the Jains care survival in the outside world is not easy.

Music.

George Negus

Negus:  Gordon Taylor there and I can't blame the malingerers for wanting to stick around. That's it for now. See you next week.

24.55.00

Series Music.

CREDITS:

GEORGIA

Reporter  CHRIS CLARK

Camera    TIM BATES

Sound     VIACHESLAV ZELENIN

Editor    MARK GLEESON

Research  TOM SZYPULSKI

25.04.06

BIRD HOSPITAL POSTCARD

Reporter  GORDOON TAYLOR

Camera    RAJESH BEDI

Sound     KAMAL BACCHA

Editor    ANDREW BARNES

Research  SAVITRI CHOUDHARY

25.10.05

Presenter/Editorial Adviser

GEORGE NEGUS

Titles Music

RICK TURK

Studio Cameras

DENNIS GHATT

BRENDAN READ

Studio Sound

DAVID DUNDAS

Vision Mixer

PETER HANRAHAN

25.16.20

Operations Assistant

VANESSA REIDY

Lighting Director

RAY MILLS

Graphic Design

ANN CONNOR

Production Assistant

TRACEY ELLISON

Director

SUSAN O'LEARY

Associate Producer

MARTIN BUTLER

Producer

LESLEY ROBINSON

Executive Producer

DUGALD MAUDSLEY

Foreign Correspondent

Australian Broadcasting Corporation ©1994

25.48.12