Turning the heat on the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) once again over its ongoing ban on feeding pigeons in public places, petitioners challenging the prohibition in the Bombay High Court submitted eight letters to Municipal Commissioner Bhushan Gagrani’s office on Tuesday, requesting designated feeding time slots.

The letters were sent a day before the next hearing in the case, scheduled for Wednesday, August 13. In its previous hearing on August 7, the court had refused to stay the BMC’s ban and directed petitioners to obtain explicit written permission from the civic body if they still wished to feed pigeons in public places. The court also noted that the BMC had not indicated any reversal of its decision to shut down kabutarkhanas, clarifying that the ban itself was under challenge — not a court-imposed order.

Police personnel were deployed for security at Dadar kabutarkhana, on Tuesday