00:00On my quest today, I have a narrow escape from a raptor, but I wonder, whose fault was it anyway?
00:09Amidst the noise and dust of the city, a young bird awaits his breakfast.
00:14It arrives by the fastest delivery service in town, an anxious mother.
00:20Perched on their sky-high real estates, the black kites of Delhi represent the highest concentration of a raptor
00:28recorded anywhere in the world.
00:31Their populations have been stable since the 1960s.
00:37I'm curious, how could these birds have maintained their stronghold in a city that's lost much of its green cover?
00:45Scientist Nishant Kumar has spent 15 years studying them.
00:51He's invited me for a day out with the birds.
00:55Our first stop, Delhi Zoo.
00:57Here, old-growth trees within the zoo complex provide a vital refuge for wild-kite colonies.
01:07Kumar is assisted by a multidisciplinary team, from tree climbers to sociologists.
01:16Our mission today is to tag young fledglings with uniquely identified markers or electronic devices
01:23that will allow Nishant and his team to monitor survival rates, growth and behaviour.
01:32Tree climbing is not easy, especially when there is a nest and eggs involved.
01:36And the team has to make sure that the bird is minimally disturbed.
01:40That is of prime importance.
01:42And for this reason, as we lift this higher and higher, it's for the person who's climbing up.
01:49The reflection will show whether there are eggs in the nest or not.
01:53And therefore, it's worth his climbing that high.
01:57Expert tree climber, Mahinder, gets his safety gear ready.
02:02So, just as a defence mechanism, the bird may go for his head.
02:07So, he's going to wear a helmet.
02:08He's on a harness to make sure that he doesn't fall down.
02:13So, we're going to step away and let him do his job.
02:18Sending a man up this tree seems like sending a man to the moon.
02:24Mahinder, heaps himself up.
02:29The telescopic inspection mirror is extended.
02:36And yes, the reflections reveal the nest is occupied.
02:40It is now worth his while to climb further up.
02:45Mahinder is now 35 feet above the ground.
02:50The fledgling protest.
02:52After all, who wants to be removed from their cosy home?
02:56He wraps the talons gently to avoid being scratched and bring them down.
03:01He has to work fast to escape the wrath of angry parents perched nearby.
03:10So, we're going to take it there.
03:12This is going to be our little field station for the day.
03:14Yeah.
03:15And now we're going to lay out all the instruments, measure them.
03:20Make sure that we do this as quickly as possible so that the parents which are hovering around
03:26do not get too agitated.
03:28Oh my God, what a magical sight.
03:31There.
03:31The birds once wrapped in, sit tight, resign to their plight.
03:38Bingo, there's another one.
03:40There's, this is like a magic bag.
03:43There we have it.
03:44What gorgeous birds.
03:47There.
03:48And now, you're going to collect all the basic data.
03:53What an absolutely magnificent bird.
03:56And what a privilege to be able to get this close to this experience.
04:01Again, I would not advocate anybody doing this on their own.
04:05Because we have the supervision of scientists, we're able to do this.
04:09Measurements are about the vital parameters which is consistent with ornithology.
04:14So, irrespective of species, you do measure the tarsus length, the tarsus thickness, the
04:19size of the hullux, which is the largest talon.
04:22Then, you also measure the third primary, which is the standard primary, which ornithologists
04:27measure to understand how well the bird has grown.
04:31And combining these aspects with the weight of the bird allows you to see how well parental
04:35investment has allowed the birds to grow well in a particular ecological setting.
04:40And we have 32 different locations in Delhi to do this, to understand the whole spectrum
04:46of how humans and kites are adjusting together through this whole process of breeding.
04:50So, this is like, we measure development milestones for children.
04:54Much, exactly.
04:55You are measuring this for this chick here.
04:58Yeah.
05:00Next, the birds will be adorned with identification marks.
05:05It's remarkable that despite their overall abundance and proximity to humans, black kites have
05:12been very rarely studied.
05:15In addition to the alphanumeric code, which is here, once the wing is folded and the bird
05:20is perched, you get to read unique alphanumeric code again and the color.
05:25So, color indicates a particular year of investment of when we measured and processed the bird.
05:31And then it has, like, phone number and institutional affiliation for people to return the bird in
05:37case they find it injured or dead.
05:39Because this all feeds into data of how well these birds are surviving in the system.
05:56Back in the nest, the anxious parents have been watching from a distance.
06:01After giving the chick some time to rest, food has arrived.
06:12But how do people who live with kites feel about them?
06:17Today, Nishant has brought me into the Eidgarh Mosque in Old Delhi.
06:21Built in 1658, the historic structure is still used by thousands of worshippers.
06:27It's also the site where the devout come to make offerings to the birds.
06:34The practice of throwing meat to black kites is a centuries-old tradition, where residents,
06:41often from the Muslim community, feed raw meat scraps to these birds of prey.
06:46There's something extremely dystopian about hundreds of birds falling from the skies.
06:51And yet, this simple act of meat throwing, perhaps it symbolizes the close relationship that
06:58people have with these birds.
07:04Here I meet Mohammed Hanif.
07:07He's an electrician, but often drops by to meet his avian friends.
07:13This is people's belief that they will benefit from throwing meat.
07:18Their troubles will vanish.
07:21This is as per the gods of our religion, if you are in trouble and you donate this food
07:26to the birds, you will benefit.
07:28It's like feeding the hungry with the hope they're sending you good wishes.
07:38Surprisingly, while hundreds of people could be at risk of attack through this activity,
07:44local inhabitants seem quite sympathetic to the birds.
07:49The people from this locality arrange food for the birds.
07:52They get the best quality meat and feed them.
08:00And it looks like it's my turn too to receive a blessing.
08:04A juvenile bird swoops down and gives me a thwack on my head.
08:11Almost, as if to say, move on, you're obstructing my way to the food.
08:16I don't blame it.
08:18After all, it was my fault for standing in its path.
08:28Our next stop is Asia's largest landfill.
08:32Established in 1984, spanning roughly 70 acres, towering over 65 meters.
08:39It exceeds its capacity, receiving over 3,000 tons of waste daily.
08:46Here, Nishant has promised me a glimpse of a subspecies of the bird, the migratory black-eared
08:52kite that arrives from Central Asia and Southern Siberia.
08:57The site serves as a massive feeding ground for the birds.
09:03You have the largest landfill in Asia.
09:06On the right-hand side of this market, we also have the largest chicken and egg market
09:12of Asia.
09:13And towards my front, you have the second largest fruit and vegetable market of the
09:18state of Delhi.
09:19And then towards my left-hand side, you have the largest dairy establishment.
09:23So this somehow becomes a quintessential example of how wrong one can go in urban planning with
09:30respect to what we want to eat and how safely we wish to do that.
09:34Once established as a temporary landfill, this area today has become a permanent dump due to
09:41poor urban planning.
09:43The meat market co-exists with the garbage due to lack of land availability for relocating
09:50either one of them.
09:51And where humans have failed, at least the kites are doing their job.
09:57So these birds eat about 200 grams of meat which they can find opportunistically on garbage
10:04points or as city kilts.
10:07So what they find on the roads.
10:09So a bird is providing an easy service of disposal of rotting meat which might have contributed
10:16to the issue of diseases or simple rotting nuisance.
10:20If digested anaerobically on landfills and garbage piles, it also releases methane which causes
10:26climate change.
10:27Just at this spot, on this giant mountain of garbage, Kumar has recorded up to 30,000 black
10:35kites.
10:36Delhi has a colossal waste problem.
10:39The kites are doing their bit and thriving.
10:44And yet, Kumar is clear that in spite of the presence of large amounts of food, there are
10:51threats that could wipe out these birds.
10:55The laying season in Delhi for these kites extends for almost 4 months which is much longer
11:02than what their counterparts have in Europe.
11:05But with extreme weather events like excessive rains or heat, the breeding season could become
11:14much shorter.
11:18Another threat is the excessive destruction of mature trees on which they roost.
11:23Already some pockets of Delhi have lost their tree cover, forcing the birds to adapt.
11:30My relationship with the kites has changed since this story.
11:34The fear has softened into a quiet reverence.
11:39A resilient, sentient bird, a good parent, a friendly neighbour, silently providing a cleaning
11:49service to our city.
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