Artificial breeding of house sparrows mooted

To focus on the rapidly declining population of the bird, ornithologists and bird lovers in Orissa have suggested artificial breeding to increase their numbers

GUWAHATI—19-03-2010 A House Sparrow ( Passer domesticus) feeds on insect in marigold flowers on the eve of the World House Sparrow Day celebration in Guwahati city on Friday, March 19, 2010. Till not very long ago, the House Sparrow was one of the most abundant and common birds in the world. But today their number is declining across their natural range in both urban and rural habitats and faces a shaky future. Its slow but noticeable disappearance is believed to have been attributed by various factors ranging from the destruction of its habitat to lack of insect food for the young and even the increasing microwave pollution from mobile phone towers. Its decline is an indicator of the continuous degradation of the environment in which we live. The World House Sparrow Day is an international initiative by Nature Forever Society (India) in collaboration with Bombay Natural History Society (India), Cornell Lab of Ornithology (USA), Eco-Sys Action Foundation (France) Avon Wildlife Trust (UK) and numerous other national and international organisations across the world. This will focus on raising awareness about the decline of the House Sparrow and throw light on the problems faced by the House Sparrow in its daily fight for survival and work towards its conservation. 2010 is the first year of its celebration and the theme for this year is, “We will save our House Sparrows”. PHOTO:RITU_RAJ_KONWAR GUWAHATI—19-03-2010 A House Sparrow ( Passer domesticus) feeds on insect in marigold flowers on the eve of the World House Sparrow Day celebration in Guwahati city on Friday, March 19, 2010. Till not very long ago, the House Sparrow was one of the most abundant and common birds in the world. But today their number is declining across their natural range in both urban and rural habitats and faces a shaky future. Its slow but noticeable disappearance is believed to have been attributed by various factors ranging from the destruction of its habitat to lack of insect food for

While the world observed the World House Sparrow Day on March 20 to focus on the rapidly declining population of the bird, ornithologists and bird lovers in Orissa have suggested artificial breeding to increase their numbers.

“Now time has come to think of artificial breeding of house—sparrows which, once found in plenty, are now rarely seen even in more wooded rural areas,” the state’s former chief conservator of forests, Sudhakar Mohapatra, said.

It would not be long when people would no longer be able to see the familiar scene of ‘ghara chatia’ in local parlance, or ‘charai’ in Bengali, having a hearty bath in dust indicating advent of rains, bird lovers said.

Ornithologists said the bird had been put on the ‘red list’ of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Although there are no concrete data on the rapidly declining population, bird—lovers claimed that about 80 per cent of sparrows had already disappeared from the face of earth for good in the last two decades.

House sparrows generally build their nests in thatched houses, but as concrete structures are replacing more and more their thatched varieties even in rural areas, the birds are in a bind, noted ornithologist U.N. Dev says.

“This is a problem which seems to defy any solution as people will not volunteer to build thatched houses to shelter sparrows,” Mr. Dev noted.

However, Mr. Dev still has a solution: The government should suitably amend designs of houses, built under the Indira Awas Yojana, to leave space for nests, hoping they would adjust to the new surrounding of concrete buildings.

Very recently, he pointed out, in a similar case of declining Peregrine Falcons, a popular bird found in South America, city fathers of Washington and Mexico City had begun changing designs of new buildings that were coming up in order to attract the birds to build nests.

Since the house sparrow is a familiar bird in Orissa, designers should also take note of the fact while preparing the structures, Mr. Dev suggested.

“For instance, the new houses can have gardens where trees and bushes can attract the birds to build nests,” he said.