Ooty: As the bicentenary of the modern Nilgiris is being celebrated in the hills this year, in the Government Arts College(GAC) here in Ooty, the first ever college to have come up in the hills, the students there set up 100 sparrow-nests in the college campus to attract and care for house sparrows to lend their support to the conservation of house sparrows as the globe is observing World House Sparrow day on Wednesday.
Encouraged by Dr M. Easwaramoorthy, principal of the GAC, who is known for motivating green efforts in the GAC campus, Dr B. Manivannan, assistant professor of Tamil, who initiated the sparrow-nest project in the GAC campus, motivated 100 students from its department of Tamil to become the champions for the cause of sparrow-care to be emulative for others.
Dr Manivannan, said that that unplanned developmental activities and vanishing of tiled roofs led to the disappearance of house sparrows in the human settlements. “The elder generation which enjoyed the life with house sparrows, which connect the kids to the sounds of nature, should come forward to encourage the present generation to re-connect with the house sparrow culture to enjoy the wonders of nature,” he noted.”The 100 sparrow nests in the tiled century old building of GAC campus is to make this campus the living example of house sparrow conservation culture and attract this avian wonders, and, perhaps a sanctuary for them to live a safe life. A portion of this old tiled building was the first modern building to come up in Ooty, built by Mr John Sullivan, then collector of Coimbatore. in early 1800’s and founder of modern Nilgiris.
