Where have sparrows gone? Time Hero to find out

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Where have sparrows gone? Time Hero to find out

September 17th, 2009 - 10:50 am ICT by IANS

By Quaid Najmi

Mumbai, Sep 17 (IANS) Wake up in the morning and miss the chirp of the house

sparrow? The Indian government wants to know where the little birds have gone

and have roped in Time magazine’s Hero of the Environment-2008 Mohammed Dilawar

to find out.

Nearly a year after Nashik naturalist Dilawar became a Time magazine Hero for

saving the common house sparrow, India’s ministry of environment and forests has

woken up to the need for conserving the bird.

 

“The centre has recently sanctioned a three-year project to investigate the

causes leading to the decline of the house sparrow (Passer Domesticus) in urban

areas of India,” an excited Dilawar, 29, told IANS here.

 

To be headed by him, the project was awarded to the Bombay Natural History

Society and will be the first ever study dedicated to monitoring the house

sparrow population in India which has been steadily declining in cities over the

past few years.

 

He said in India there is complete lack of basic information on the urban house

sparrow population like on its habitat, factors affecting its breeding and

survival, and social impact of urbanisation leading to their decline.

 

Dilawar plans to tackle these objectives scientifically and submit

recommendations to the centre.

 

He said the decline in the house sparrow population in Britain and Western

Europe has been widely recognised and taken very seriously. The humble house

sparrows are nature’s bio-indicators and enjoy a historical relationship with

humans for thousands of years.

 

In the past five years, Dilawar has almost single-handedly struggled to create

awareness about conserving the common sparrow, now facing a severe threat from

humans.

 

Based in the heart of India’s wine country, Nashik in northwest Maharashtra,

Dilawar leads by example - he tends to over 150 sparrows daily, giving them food

and water, as the bird’s natural food resources are being eaten away by massive

urbanisation.

 

“The common sparrow is under attack from many quarters. Hundreds of trees and

bushes are being cleared for big buildings, open spaces are being concretised

and thousands of mobile phone communication towers are being erected in cities,

towns and villages. All this has hugely affected the tiny sparrow,” he

explained.

 

According to Dilawar, mobile phone towers pose one of the biggest threats to

sparrows, and other birds like the tailorbird, mynah, sunbird, and even

squirrels and human beings. He quoted a recent survey by a New Delhi-based

organisation that found electromagnetic radiation pollution in Mumbai due to

mobile phone towers is 200 percent higher than the permissible limits.

 

“This means we are sitting in an X-ray environment all the time. For the common

sparrow, it causes irritation, it reduces their reproductive capacity. Even if

it lays eggs, the hatchlings are either destroyed or born with serious

deformities,” he explained.

 

Though the species is sturdy, sparrow chicks have a high - up to 50 percent -

mortality rate that affects the bird’s overall population, according to Dilawar,

who has a masters in ecology and environmental studies, specializing in zoology

from Manipal University.

 

Dilawar compares the fate of common sparrows in the environment to that of the

“common man in a democracy - nobody bothers about him”.

 

He pointed to the menace of corporates, housing complexes and even public

authorities obsessed with artificial landscaping using exotic and imported

plants, which will ultimately prove to be green deserts.

 

Sparrows, according to Dilawar, are nature’s barometer. “If there is a

significant shift in their numbers around us, it’s a warning signal for humans,”

Dilawar asserted.

 

House sparrows are hardy creatures with a life span of three to 13 years, able

to survive in all temperatures and up to 15,000 feet above sea level.

 

One of the reasons for the decline of sparrows is the sale of thousands of

catapults used to target birds. “It’s a lethal weapon, shooting at a speed of 40

feet per second and must be banned,” he urged.

 

Field surveys for the sparrow study will begin in Nashik in October and go on

for three years following which the project will be replicated all over the

country.

 

 

 

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Thank you for your compassion !

With best regards,

Debasis Chakrabarti

Compassionate Crusaders Trust

http://www.animalcrusaders.org