Pigeons have been domesticated for thousands of years. The predecessors of the modern day Racing pigeons were pigeons bred for their homing ability, primarily to carry messages. "Pigeon Posts" have been established all over the world and while mainly used in the military, some are still in service today.
Pigeons have also been used in wars to carry messages and the most famous of these carriers may be a bird known as G I Joe. It is written G I Joe saved the lives of the inhabitants of the village of Calvi Vecchia, Italy, and of the British troops stationed there. The village was scheduled to be bombarded by the Allied forces on 18 October 1943, but the message that the British had captured the village, delivered by G I Joe, arrived just in time to avoid the bombing. More than a thousand people were saved. Actually, it’s been written messenger pigeons were used as early as 1150, in Baghdad, and also later by Genghis Khan. And it’s been further reported, in 1860, that Paul Reuter, who later founded Reuters press agency, used a fleet of more than 45 pigeons to deliver news and stock prices between Brussels and Aachen, plus the outcome of the Battle of Waterloo was also first delivered by a pigeon to England.
The modern pigeon racing originated in Belgium in the mid-19th century. Pigeon racing is a sport involving the racing of specially trained racing pigeons, a unique breed of domestic pigeon. Here, the competing birds are taken a distance away from their lofts and they must race home. The time taken and distance are recorded and the fastest bird (distance/time) is declared the winner. Provided it survives the many hazards associated with racing, a single pigeon could compete from about 6 months of age and still be in competition at over ten years of age. Such feats are uncommon, however, and the average racing career rarely exceeds three years.
To compete in a race, it must wear a permanent, unique numbered ring or band that is placed on its leg at about 5 days of age. For a race to be conducted, the competing pigeons must be entered into the race, usually at the organization's clubhouse, and taken away from their home to be released at a redetermined time and location. The distance between the bird's home loft and the race point is carefully measured by GPS and the time taken by the bird to return is measured using acceptable timing methods.
In India we have active racing pigeon clubs in Tamil Nadu, mainly Chennai, Bangalore and Calcutta. Calcutta clubs were well known for their long distance achievements of over 1,500 kms where they got their birds back from Delhi in very good time. However, we haven't heard anything big from their end for over a while now.
Today, Chennai is easily the undisputed racing pigeon capital of the country. It has easily over 1,000 active pigeon fanciers distributed across several clubs. Bangalore till recently had one club - The Karnataka Racing Pigeon Club (of which yours truly was a part of till recently). Bangalore also has one other active racing pigeon club, the name of which doesn't occur to me at the moment.
Tuticurin, Nagercoil, Trichy also have several active racing pigeon clubs and several fanciers from these places, including Chennai and Bangalore, in March 2009, took part in a 1000 km Race. Over 40 birds were pooled and the winner was Mr Thirumugam from Chennai. His bird returned in less that 2 days from the distance. This is indeed a record in these parts.