While yet another World House Sparrow Day will be observed on Tuesday, there was little to cheer as the bird population was found to be diminishing in Thiruvananthapuram city.
A city-wide survey conducted by the Travancore Nature History Society (TNHS), a city-based NGO, revealed a fall in the bird count, when compared to the previous years. The exhaustive survey, led by TNHS coordinator K.B. Sanjayan, was carried out in the known traditional pockets of house sparrows in the city and its suburbs.
While the survey team were able to spot only 17 birds at the Connemara Market, considered to be a hot-spot of the birds, during a count undertaken on March 12, they could find 22 birds a few days later. While 20 bird nests, installed by the Forest Department and other agencies, existed in the market premises, only half of them were found to be used by the birds.
The western side of the city projected a depressing trend with very few sparrows being spotted. In Sulaiman street, near Valiyathura, the team could not manage to spot a single sparrow, despite scouting the area on two days. The region accounted for 25 sparrows last year. Moreover, no sparrows could be found in Shangumughom, where five birds had been spotted in the area in 2017.
The Vettucaud region continued to remain a strong hot-spot of the birds with 14 birds being located near a particular spot and many more reported to be frequenting other pockets in the locality. The survey team noted that the compassionate attitude of local residents have played a role in attracting these birds to the region.
As in the previous years, the northern stretch of the city presented a dismal picture with no sparrows being spotted. The team scouted the Ulloor-Kazhakuttom belt, and also covered other areas including Pongumoodu, Sreekaryam, Karyavattom, Vellayambalam, Sasthamangalam, Vattiyurkavu, Peroorkada, Mannanthala, Nalanchira and Kesavadasapuram. It was noted that while the Kedaram shopping complex at Kesavadasapuram provided an ideal setting for sparrow dwelling, no initiatives were made by the stakeholders to attract birds to the area. Only four birds could be spotted in the Nedumangad region, a marked fall from the count of nine birds recorded last year. In contrast to the scenario that prevailed in 2015, there were no sightings of sparrows in the southern side of the city. The premises of the Pazhavangadi Ganapathy temple and its surroundings were once a hub of these birds, the team noted.
