World Sparrow Day: Friendly plants alone can save sparrows

Hyderabad: With World Sparrow Day observed on Sunday, experts say that more than blaming the decline of the sparrow population on cellphone towers, destruction of habitats due to planting of exotic plants and hunger deaths are the main issues that need to be countered if sparrows are to be conserved for future generations.

Dr V. Vasudeva Rao, senior scientist and ornithologist at Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University, said, “Destruction of habitat has pushed sparrows away. Sparrows are not open nesters and need native species of trees and bushy plants like malle and virajaji (jasmine varieties) or neem which are difficult to find in Hyderabad as exotic plant are being planted everywhere. Even bougainv-illea, which was once commonly found, are liked by sparrows but even these are not being planted much anymore. Earlier there used to be houses with tiled roofs or with wooden frames, in the gaps of which sparrows used to dwell, but they have been replaced by concrete buildings everywhere, which do not give any space for them to nest.”

However, even if there are still a few places for the sparrows to nest, food is a serious concern. Dr Rao said that sparrows made around 283 trips in a day to feed their chicks. Along with replacement of native plant species with exotic ones, food availability has also gone down because of changes in the lifestyle of city folk.

Dr Rao added, “Earlier, cleaning of grains used to be done by hand using traditional tools like chata or jallada. Small insects used to be thrown on the ground and there used to be spillage of grains, which used to serve as a food source for sparrows. Now with supermarkets offering cleaned grains in plastic, sealed packets, such food availability has been completely eliminated.”

Due to lack of food in close proximity, sparrows have to make longer trips and as a result, when parent sparrows return to their nest they tend to forget which chick has already been fed. The strongest chick in the nest gets fed more and the week ones die. Hunger deaths are rampant among adult sparrows.

City bird lovers build nests

There are success stories in Hyderabad wherein concerned citizens have ensu-red a rise in the sparrow population.

For the last three years, Mr M.A. Razak, a 67-year-old retired official of the Postal department and resident of Karmanghat, has been going around on his two-wheeler with a ladder to colonies in his area and installing sparrow nests that he brings from Prof-essor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural Unive-rsity. Sometimes people even call him up and request him to install sparrow nests in their colonies. His efforts have resulted in nearly 200 occupied sparrow nests in five-six colonies.

Mr Razak said, “I will keep doing this till my health allows me. I used to work in Mahbubnagar. Some years after retirement when I visited my office I found that a sparrow’s nest, which I had restored before retiring, was still being used by the birds.”