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The sparrow that left
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If the sparrow is any indication of how the world is changing, soon crows and trees might also be found only in e-books, warns J. Vasanth Adithya
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I still remember the days when I used to come home from school and spend the evening on my terrace watching the birds that flew in the sky. Since then I have always admired the sparrow, though it doesn’t possess the colourful feathers or attrib
utes of other birds. I would call the sparrow a “smart bird”. The sparrow signifies a bond that exists between humans and nature and is an example to humans of kinship and good home building. Now, the sparrow is found merely in books or on television. You must be lucky if you happen to sight a sparrow in Bangalore. The sparrow suddenly disappeared and none seem to know how it happened.
With global warming, rapid infrastructural growth, and pollution on the rise, the factors have conspired to sound the dirge for the sparrows in Bangalore. Traffic is synonymous with hell. It is time that we do something so that the future generations might not have to find crows and trees in e-books and web pages! Pollution must be curbed and using public transport must be encouraged. Trees can be planted and each one of us can take a small step to save the environment.
Individual initiatives can truly bring about changes. Policies must be aimed at striking the balance between economic development and environmental protection through sustainable development. Moreover we need to cultivate the much-lacking civic sense and realise that the air, the land and the soil are not gifts from our forefathers, but a loan from our children.
The “to-be extinct” list reads as follows: the tiger, the Liberian lynx, Sumatran orangutan, northern nosed-wombat, the wild Bactrian camel... The sparrow might not be far off in the list. The dodo and the dinosaur might soon have some august company. If wild is for animals, isn’t humanity for humans? I really wonder, how did we fail to hear the cries of the sparrow that was?
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