In the tunnel located under the Recyclerie, the third place of the Porte de Clignancourt (XVIIIe), a few pigeons gather, as if they were waiting for the return of their fellow birds. However, these birds are trapped on the metal beams of the tunnel. On the rails of the former Petite Ceinture du XVIIIe, which is under construction, nets unwittingly restrain the birds.
The City of Paris installed these nets at the end of January to prevent the birds from settling and depositing their droppings on the visitors to the tunnel, which is expected to reopen soon to the public. However, for now, some pigeons still manage to get through and become trapped behind the mesh without being able to escape.
“We can hear these poor animals suffering,” denounces Farah, a local resident and president of the Sauvons les jardins du ruisseau collective, supported by videos and photos of pigeon carcasses. Accompanied by Didier Lapostre, president of the Association espaces de rencontres entre les hommes et les oiseaux (Aerho), she hopes to convince the municipality to remove this deadly net for avian fauna.
For several years, Aerho has advised municipalities on how to manage urban pigeon populations. At the Porte de Clignancourt, they had recommended installing metal grilles instead of nets, which “stretch and tear over time,” explains Didier Lapostre. This allows the poor birds to pass through, only to get caught in the trap.
Protecting walkers from droppings
According to Farah, pigeons are not the only ones caught in the nets. “There are also bats, a protected species,” adds the representative of the association. This information is contradicted by the city’s department of green spaces and the environment, in an email seen by “Le Parisien.”
“Following two visits by the urban ecology agency to this section of the Petite Ceinture du XVIIIe, no colony of bats (chiroptera) was noted,” the administration states. It adds that if the nocturnal mammals use the tunnel to search for insects, there is no indication that they hibernate there.
According to the email, “the net was deployed between January 22 and 25 in preparation for the opening to the public” of the space under the bridge. The idea? “To protect – from droppings – the walkers under the tunnel vaults.” Since 2006, in collaboration with the SNCF, the City of Paris has been rehabilitating the Petite Ceinture – where nature had reclaimed its rights after decades of abandonment – to turn it into a walking area.
