***BRING BACK THE SPARROWS ::: Gone are the days when people had time to feed sparrows with grains on a daily basis. In fact, in this fast moving world, we now do not see sparrows as people have very little time to spend with natures little wonders. **March 20 is the World Sparrow Day -- a day to rekindle the memory of those fast-disappearing birds, loved by ornithologists and others alike.*** ### WHY DID THE SPARROWS GO MISSING ???? Giving reasons for the fall in the number of sparrows in Chennai, KV Sudhakar, President of the Madras Naturalists Society, says, Sparrows have been co-existing with humans for a long time and have always been an integral part of households. Earlier, housewives used to dry grains on their terraces and this would attract sparrows, which would nest on balconies. However, with the changing face of Chennais architecture, and with people choosing to buy grains from the supermarket, sparrows have lost their means of sustenance and as a result, disappeared from the city. Finally, people are now taking up the issue and making efforts to attract the birds back to the households. ### COMMONERS MAKE AN ATTEMPT Diet and fitness consultant Sadhana Rajkumar, who took up the cause of sparrows out of personal interest, says, I started an initiative in 2010 after I learnt about the dwindling sparrow population in Chennai. I hired a team of carpenters and started making sparrow boxes. We started a group on a social-networking page and even distributed a few boxes. People here take care of their dogs and cats, but wouldnt like to accord the same importance to sparrows. One of the prime reasons why sparrows disappeared from the city is the lack of good food. I think its about time we brought back the birds to our city. Students, too, for their part, are making an effort to save the sparrows. Kota Ashwin Kumar is one such student. The final-year biotechnology student from Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering started Concern, Awareness and Responsibility for the Environment (CARE) along with his friends to make a difference to society. His team started Project Sparrow in 2012 after the club did a survey on the reasons why sparrows were fast disappearing from our city. The surveys findings indicated that there are about 2, 200 sparrows predominantly present in north Chennai. We tied up with an online portal to raise funds to distribute sparrow boxes. We collected about ` 22, 000 and have fixed about 40 boxes till now. The plan is to fix about 150-200 boxes by the end of this year, says Ashwin. ### BE AWARE OF THE SITUATION AT ALL TIMES : Naturalist T Murugavel, says, People shouldnt talk about it onlyon a specific day allotted for sparrows. They should realize the importance of sparrows and work collaboratively. Though there are talks and discussions about the issue, people should take up the cause at a personal level.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 11:03:16 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015