Homing pigeons were officially used by the Indian police force in Odisha until 2002 to transport emergency messages across remote mountainous areas where radio signals consistently failed.

A closer look

Homing pigeons were officially used by the Indian police force in Odisha until 2002 to transport emergency messages across remote mountainous areas where radio signals consistently failed. This means that while the rest of the world was panicking about the digital millennium bug and upgrading dial-up internet, a government agency was still relying on literal birds to carry out vital logistical operations. The pigeon service was established in 1946 and at its peak boasted over 800 highly trained avian officers. They were eventually retired not because they were inefficient, but because satellite communication finally reached the region, rendering the birds technologically obsolete. Now, these feathered civil servants are mostly kept for ceremonial purposes, entirely unaware that they were aggressively outpaced by a router