What Happened to Indian Sparrow?
It was a mess in my old house during 1977-78 periods, lots of grass, nest particles frequently falling from the ventilator, I distinctly recall.
The "Kitch - kitch" sounds between the host and the new intruder-male sparrows are still ringing in my ears; and was worth watching. Male sparrow fighting against it's own image in the mirror used to be a great fun to watch. Male sparrows with broad dark band on his face do not allow other birds entering its territory. In contrast, female sparrows are always gentle and social.
They hatch several times in a year bearing 2-6 chicks are cute with a yellow angles at their beaks make them distinctly different from the grownups. They were often seen in domestic areas trying to follow their parents for feeds. These chicks are very beautiful and I used see them often on my compound wall jumping around. They hop around and ofcourse drop around their excreta. As time passed, they have started disappearing and literally vanished not only from cities but also from many towns and villages. I saw very few of them in villages of Andhra pradesh, and karnataka.
Nesting areas
There are so many birds, which were once frequently seen, now scanty i numbers and some of them disappeared from domestic areas completely. Sparrows, Mina, Robin, Common-doves, Bulbul, Honey-bird, and seven sisters (bublers) have become very less or even disappeared from our domestic lives. This drastic near- extinction is mainly due to disturbance in their habitat. One of the major changes is the modern housing without ventilators; smooth surfaces do not allow them to nest (multi-story flats). Olden days, interior design of displaying the photos on walls were in a particular angle making them to nest behind the objects. This was an ideal place for making a nest. Lack of availability of building materials such as grasses, old feathers etc, and reduction in number of trees, forces them to run away for the sake of breeding.
Availability of food
Drying of grains outdoors, was attracting lot of birds; but With the advent of polythene packets and departmental stores like food-world and many, there is no cleaning or drying of grains needed, hence this deprives them from eating these cereal grains. In many areas, agriculture practices have changed; farmers have stooped harvesting grains and switched over to cotton, sunflower, and even plantations like Eucalyptus making grains unavailable to birds.
Poisoning and Predators
Lot of birds die in the fields due to insecticides used in agriculture. Annually many thousands of small birds die due to insecticide and other types of pollutants. Noise is one of the worst pollution for sparrows. To a smaller extent they get adapted to domestic noises, but high decibels of noise from vehicles and machines cared them off. Higher concentration of chemical exhausts from vehicles is lethal to chicks. Domestic predators such as cats kill many small chicks and form part of destruction. Micro waves allegedly known to disturb sleep, laying eggs and hatching.
Solutions
Gradually their number decreased and is rarely seen in some parts of old buildings in rural areas. I still recall those "chick-chick" sounds in my heart, but now can't even see one sparrow. What a loss to humans and nature. Disappearance of Sparrow from our lives is a definite warning that we are heading towards a major catastrophe of nature. Environment degradation, imbalance of flora and fauna, and is a definite welcome to global warming. More plantation and bird boxes on these trees may help propagating these friendly birds. May some body at least do cloning of these birds and animals and leave them in nature to expand them selves rather than lamenting on extinction.
Prof. Maj. Dr S Bakhtiar Choudhary
MD (Sports medicine)
E-mail:sbakhtiar@hotmail.com
