PV Sindhu has doubled down on her support for the elaborate animal-control measures put in place ahead of the BWF World Championships in Delhi, pushing back against the criticism the plan has drawn since a video of monkey whisperer Zafar at work went viral.
“I genuinely don’t understand the outrage,” Sindhu said.
“We all love Wimbledon, and they’ve had Rufus the hawk keeping pigeons away for years. Every major sporting event has its own local challenges. This is just one additional measure on top of the countless measures already being taken. Somehow that becomes the talking point.”
The comparison is not an idle one. Rufus, a Harris’s hawk handled by falconer Wayne Davis, has patrolled the skies above the All England Club since the turn of the millennium, flying over the grounds each morning to keep pigeons from treating Centre Court like their own. He does not hunt the birds; his presence alone is usually enough to send them elsewhere.
Over the years, Rufus has become something of a fixture at Wimbledon, as recognisable in his own way as the tournament’s grass courts and strawberries and cream.
Sindhu’s point is that Delhi’s solution, while it may look unfamiliar, sits in a similar tradition, a local, practical answer to a problem every major venue eventually has to solve.
Delhi’s version of that answer, though, has drawn more scrutiny than admiration since it became public. Zafar, a professional monkey whisperer who learnt the trade from his father and grandfather, is part of a four-man team engaged by the Badminton Association of India and the Sports Authority of India to keep monkeys off the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium campus, replicating a langur’s warning call to send them away.
The video of him doing exactly that, filmed during a media walkthrough of the venue, has since travelled well beyond the badminton audience it was meant for, and not always with the intent organisers had hoped for.
For Sindhu, the reaction has missed the scale of what is actually being done. Zafar’s team is one piece of a wider operation built after January’s India Open left BAI answering uncomfortable questions, when bird droppings on court twice halted play and shuttlers complained of poor conditions at the venue.
Since then, the stadium’s vents have been sealed, its wooden doors replaced with a double-door system, and a non-toxic gel, borrowed from a Railway Ministry method for protecting overhead wires, applied around likely entry points. 10 portable machines, patented in the US, now emit predatory bird calls overnight as a further check. 80 toilets across the campus have been replaced, 16 entrances fitted with glass doors and automatic entry systems, and lighting specialists flown in from Indonesia to bring the rig up to international standard.
Sindhu framed all of it as part of a hospitality the country is proud to offer, whatever form it takes.
“Can’t wait for the world to experience Indian hospitality,” she said. “I’m 100 per cent sure we’re going to deliver a world-class World Championships.”
Sindhu will lead India’s campaign along with Asian Games gold medalists Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty in the World Championships, which is returning to India for the first time since 2009. The tournament will be played at the IGI Stadium from August 17 to 23.
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