Scientist blames wrong policy for declining common birds in India

Tiruchy: A conservation field biologist here has warned against habitat loss posing the greatest threat to India’s common birds.

On the eve of ‘World Sparrow Day that falls on Wednesday (March 20),  he said there was need to raise awareness among the common public, not only about the falling population of house sparrows but also other common birds.

Prof. Q Ashoka Chakkaravarthy, who is also the faculty of Ecology Environmental Biology and bird watcher, associated with Centre for Ecology and Conservation, Tiruchy, told DC that it is alarming not to protect other common birds and small creatures like butterflies, moths, bees and micro-faunae.

The ‘World Sparrow Day’ also speaks for many of the common bird species and hence the conservation of the ‘house sparrow’ and its habitats would also help to save other common biodiversity.  Impact of global warming and climate change in the decline of the sparrow population in India is yet to be studied, he added.

“As far as my concern on this species, house sparrows are ignored because the Government of India spends a lot of money in saving other wild animals and this attitude towards conservation has to be changed,” he said.  

As a conservation field biologist with more than 20 years experience in the field of wildlife conservation, there has been a lot of changes in the physical environment in our locality (Tiruchy and adjoining towns) in the last two decades.

“The reasons are many, and often complex habitat fragmentation and chemical contamination have been reported that have proved hazardous for these common birds with short life span,” he emphasised. The increased use of pesticides in cultivated lands in and around Tiruchy, is reducing the breeding
sites for them, he added.