A bird’s only hospital

Hardly one per cent of the country’s population, the Jains continue to adhere to the tenets of their reliogion. The bird hospital in Chandini Chowk is just one example of the lofty principles that they are devoted to. It also reflects their belief in freedom of all living beings, no matter how small or insignificant. 

by Anupma Jain

Next to Chandni Chowk right across the Red Fort is Digambar Jain temple. In the same complex is situated a unique and interesting hospital where the patients admitted are only birds.

Run by Prachin Shri Aggarwal Digambar Jain Panchayat, Delhi, the hospital was founded in 1956 on the Jain principle of aversion to killing. The hospital has separate wards in form of cages for different species like sparrows, parrots, domestic fowls and pigeons. It also has a research laboratory and even an intensive care unit for its serious patients.

The people especially the Jain merchants of the area bring the birds that are usually wounded by fowlers, ceiling fans or by other means for treatments. The hospital admits a maximum of sixty injured birds on a day. They are then treated, bathed and are given nutritious diet so that they recover soon. They are eventually released especially on Saturdays after they are declared fit and healthy.

The interesting thing about the hospital is that they reluctantly and in a very special case treat the non-vegetarian birds. Visitors can also see flocks of birds on the roof of the hospital. Though most of the birds are those who have been treated here but who know there are some visitors too for their respective patients!

Since it is a charitable hospital, visitors should and are expected to lessen the weight of their wallet or purse by one or two currency notes.

Transported in plastic bags or clasped between hands, the birds arrive 30 to 40 a day. In the summer, they are often dehydrated; in the winter, they suffer from pneumonia. Whether wounded by a passing auto-rickshaw or a whirling ceiling fan, the injured fowls arrive at the Charity Birds Hospital inside the Digambara Jain Temple compound, seeking a remedy for everything from pigeon pox to the common cold. One thing is for sure that this is the only hospital of its kind: The patients never admit themselves.

Opposite the historic Red Fort and situated amidst the noise and chaos of Chandni Chowk, the three-story hospital, founded in 1929, treats nearly 30,000 birds each year. The birds are first held in the intensive care unit and eventually transferred to the general ward, where they regain wing power and eventually take flight.

Fed a vegetarian diet of bread and cheese, treatments are free of cost and funded by Jain donations. The hospital separates its vegetarian patients from their non-vegetarian counterparts. Carnivorous predators such as eagles, hawks and falcons are housed exclusively on the first floor. Every Saturday, a section of the roof is opened and the recovered birds fly away. The hospital follows a central tenet of Jainism—a commitment toward enabling the freedom of all living beings, no matter how small or insignificant. And once the birds are admitted, they are never returned to their owners for fear of likely confinement.

“People bring the birds here, Jain or not,” explains veterinarian Dr. Vijay Kumar, who has worked at the hospital for nine years and while not a Jain himself, quickly mentions that he is a vegetarian. One of India’s smallest religious communities who comprise approximately one percent of India’s one billion people, Jains are, first and foremost, vegetarian.

“Just like us, a pigeon will never eat another animal. Even if it is very hungry,” says manager Sri Kamal Kishore Jain, as he describes the folk-art mural in the hospital’s second-floor entrance. It's shows a scene from a famous Jain and Buddhist tale: A king whose hand and foot have been cut off is pictured next to a scale that balances his bleeding foot and hand on one side and a bird on the other. The mural reads: “Brave and merciful king put pieces of his own flesh and finally his whole life in exchange to save a pigeon from prey of hawk.”

Walking barefoot through the bird hospital, two words come immediately to mind: bird flu. Dr. Kumar assures, “Since the bird flu we’ve taken extra precautions and care with migratory birds.

Whenever you enter the Chandni Chowk area you cannot miss seeing the charity bird's hospital located within the precincts of a temple. Timings Open: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.