With the telegram already being sacked, questions of doubt and uncertainty are looming over the humble post office and hand written letters. However, an Indian state still employs the service of pigeons in this age of emails and instant messaging.

In a recent ceremony held Odisha cops sent a message with the help of pigeons from Bhubaneshwar to Cuttack. Yes, you read that right. No, not in times when kings ruled. As a matter of fact, Odisha is the only state in India which uses pigeons for communication between two stations. Reportedly, the service was started way back in 1946 when the army handed over 200 pigeons to cops to send messages to places where there weren’t wireless or telephone links.

Well kudos to those policemen for retaining a service which is at once rich with heritage and has remained the competition of technology as well.