During the day, 33-year-old M. Thirunavukarasu is immersed in the world of microchips, mother boards and CPUs. A computer hardware specialist, he works with them on the terrace of his house.
After sunset, he confines himself in a single room on the 475-sq-ft terrace and makes banded rings for racing pigeons. The post-dusk activity is fuelled by passion. “It takes more time to mould banded rings than to repair laptops and desktops,” says Thirunavukarasu. “Making banded rings needs great concentration as it involves precision. It involves a lot of work but I don’t tire of it. It has been my passion since childhood,” says Thirunavukarasu.
Every day, Thirunavukarasu spends at least five hours to mould 200 banded rings for pigeons on the hand-driven moulding machine, which is commonly used to make electrical equipment including switches and junction boxes. Each banded ring is made of aluminium and plastic to ensure durability. Each ring, with a size of 8mm inner diameter, 10.3 mm height, 11mm radius and 3 mm thickness, costs Rs. 10. Rings are made in various colours, including red, blue, yellow, white and pink.
Information such as the name and the place of the pigeon fancier, logo, club membership number, a serial number of the ring are printed on the aluminium coat of the ring.
Any racing homer pigeon can fit into them.
“Generally, banded rings are fitted to baby pigeons that are less than eight days old. So, timely delivery of the rings is crucial, especially for racing pigeons because any delay in delivery would prevent baby pigeons from taking part in racing,” he says.
Interestingly, Thirunavakarasu is the lone pigeon fancier who specialises in the art of making banded rings in the city.
Of the 20 pigeon racing clubs in the city, at least 12 clubs buy banded rings from him at regular intervals.
Apart from members of racing clubs Chennai, those from clubs in Madurai, Bangalore, Kochi, Tuticorin, Ambur, Vellore, Trichy and Hyderabad are his customers.
“Moulding to correct size, sourcing raw materials, and years of experience are my strength. My long-time friend, K. Anbu, and my elder brother, M. Nagarajan, helped me make the right mould,” he says.
According to wildlife experts, banded rings for pigeons were used in British India. In those colonial era, the army had a separate squad that trained and maintained a dedicated mobile loft for pigeons which had identification codes in their banded rings. Pigeons from these mobile lofts carried important messages to the troops in the war zone. Such banded rings are said to have been used by local rulers and zamindars too. Over the years, individuals and racing pigeon clubs in the city and elsewhere started to use aluminium-made rings for identification of birds.
“At present, there is no restriction on making banded rings for birds by individuals. Prior permission from the state forest department should be taken only for organising pigeon races,” said an official with the Tamil Nadu Forest Department.
Thirunavukarasu can be contacted at 9962011655 and 8148396790.
