The sky effect can be created from ground level. The numerous local movements that have together revived the once entangled house sparrow in India’s urban areas are living proof of this.
The sky effect can be created from ground level. The numerous local movements that have together revived the once entangled house sparrow in India’s urban areas are living proof of this.
Earlier this year, a group of naturalists from the Salem Ornithological Foundation tracked down the sparrow, but with a laptop instead of a telescope. On eBird, an online database of all those seen across India, the team scoured for entries on the common house sparrow – whose declining population around urban India has been a threat for more than a decade.
The team observed sparrows across Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and mapped them district-wise. For example, Chennai district has seen sparrows almost every three kilometers in the last 10 years. All these maps were put together in a final report along with an interactive map of the entire state, which confidently declares that Tamil Nadu’s sparrow population is now stable.
The team led by Ganeshwar SV does not take this claim lightly. “What we are seeing in this period is not so much a decline in population, but a shift towards areas with less urban activity. Rural and semi-urban areas of the state are much more visible; it is urban areas that have fewer sparrows. looking at.” While the team is still working on reconciling these population numbers – “that’s a huge task” – their current project fully describes where sparrows have been seen, where not, and where data is unavailable.
WWF India’s IUCN Red List has also placed this bird in the Least Related Category for years. So our friendly feathered neighbors may be fine, but urban India still misses them dearly.
Therefore, the past decade has seen grassroots movements in cities and towns across the country to revive these rare-sighted birds, and many of these initiatives have yielded clear results. Often, these movements centered on a single town or city, led by just one or two individuals. But the end goal has always been ambitious: to involve hundreds of citizens in a joint effort to encourage these birds to return to the city.
A prominent name behind these scattered movements is Nashik-based Mohammad Dilawar, who can be at least partly credited with popularizing March 20 as World Sparrow Day. World Sparrow Day is a joint initiative by the India-based Nature Forever Society (NFS) – founded by Dilawar with sparrow conservation as a key point – and the France-based Eco-SIS Action Foundation.
centuries old friendship
N Dhanasekar, founder of Coimbatore-based Chitukuruvigal Arakkattalai, which has been working towards protecting house sparrows and their habitat for over a decade, says their association with humans goes back many centuries. He adds, “They lived in colonies, and their nests were in almost every house in the neighborhood as well as in bus bays and railway stations. “He explains how birds encourage greener urban spaces by carrying seeds from forests to cities.
K Dhanasekar of Chitukuruvigal Arakkattalai, Coimbatore, has an artificial nest box that can be placed on terraces, windows and walls of premises to attract sparrows.
Dhansekar points out that house sparrows are indicators of a thriving urban biodiversity. “They eat insects and small insects in the field. The massive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides has wiped out their vital nutritious food,” he says, stressing the need for more organic farming.
Dilawar agrees, adding that the widespread use of insecticides has killed the insects that feed on the sparrow cubs. He says shrinking green spaces and modern architecture contributed to the decline as birds could not find enough space to nest. “At that time, preventing the decline of sparrows that build secondary habitats was the most important thing to do,” says Dilawar.
how to help sparrow
In 2005, when Dilawar led a sparrow habitat movement by setting up nest boxes, bird feeders and water bowls in urban areas with the help of volunteers from across India. Apart from its base in Mumbai and Nashik, Dilawar’s NFS has city coordinators in places like New Delhi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru to spread awareness to create an ecosystem of bird feeders and nesting in schools and residential areas.
School children eagerly watch volunteers of the Green Climate Team explain sparrow conservation at an event organized at KDPM High School in Visakhapatnam ahead of World Sparrow Day. photo credit: KR Deepak
In the coastal city of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, environmental NGO Green Climate organizes annual workshops in schools and colleges on how to make bird feeders out of plastic bottles, pottery, coconut shells and bamboo baskets. He has also been highlighting the importance of native plant species, which support birds, by reaching out to educational institutions in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
As World Sparrow Day approaches on March 20, Dhanasekar will organize awareness meetings, camps in educational institutions and government schools, as well as distribute nest boxes and bird feeders to homes and institutions. thirukkural Couplets on the nest box so the kids can remember thirukkural While bringing back the birds,” he smiles.
Dhanasekar, who spoke to over a thousand students last Sunday at the 125th meeting of Chittukuruvigal Arakkattalai held in Thoothukudi, says, “We have to continue the conversation, especially among the students.” Encouraging them to build temporary nests and create safe nooks around their homes. “Most of the students found materials like used cardboard boxes, shoe boxes, bottles and coconut husks which can be raised up as nest boxes. In addition to physical and online seminars, we also upload one minute and two minute videos on how to build nest boxes and bird feeders. Once we make them aware, they come up with new ideas.”
On Large scale
Dilawar believes that a sustainable long-term answer to the conservation of many other common species of birds lies in creating and nurturing primary habitats such as creating parklands with native plant species. To do this he started the Native Plant Research Conservation Center in Nashik, Maharashtra, which now has over 400 species and has helped create many high-density urban city forests that are important for bird habitats. He added, “We shifted our focus to an ecosystem-based approach, with the house sparrow as the keystone species. Our fight is not only to preserve the numbers of house sparrows, but also to save all the common birds and biodiversity found in our immediate environment.”