Students of K’sirs International School will work with the residents of Chinnavedampatty village to improve the sparrow population there. The students will distribute handbills to the residents, educate them on the importance of sparrows and encourage them to initiate measures to provide a safe habitat for the house sparrows.
The sparrow conservation programme ‘Adopt a Sparrow Village’ got underway on Wednesday, observed as the World Sparrow Day.
Lalitha Prakash, Secretary, K’sirs International School, said that students of grades six, seven and eight would first distribute handbills, talk to residents and shopkeepers there, help them appreciate the importance of conserving sparrows and then fix nests on the premises of their houses.
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The students had already begun the programme in a small way by installing the nests at the houses of local residents who work at the school.
Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History and the Coimbatore Chapter of Young Indians were part of the programme in which they educated the students on sparrow conservation, trained them in making earthenware to provide drinking water and grain storage facilities for the birds and also donated bamboos for the birds to nest.
Ms. Prakash said that the school had divided students into groups of six or so. Each group would take a street at a time to work with the residents. After the sparrows start nesting there, the students would make a weekly or fortnightly visit for a follow-up. Thereafter they would move to other streets.
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In a year or so, the students would cover all the residents of the village.
Goldin Quadros, Senior Scientist, Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, said that the programme organisers chose Chinnavedampatty because there was a scope for improving the bird population.
He then spoke of the institution’s work with people in various parts of the city to drive home the importance of sparrows and how the residents had responded.
Vanitha Mohan, Managing Trustee, Siruthuli, who spoke at the inauguration of the sparrow conservation programme, said that protecting the bird was everybody’s responsibility. There were days, not so far, when one could easily spot the little birds at homes. Today it was not so.
For the environment to be healthy, she said that the presence of birds, bees, butterflies and bats were important.
Asking the students to work with enthusiasm, she said that she hoped to see more sparrows in Chinnavedampatty.
Manoj Rajagopal, Co-Chair, Environment Vertical, Young Indians, said that the 26 chapters of the organisation were working across India to save the sparrows. The organisation had partnered with SACON in this regard. The reason for the fall in sparrow population was mostly man-made.
Along with the sparrow conservation programme, Young Indians was also working on the ‘Vision Carbon Neutral’ programme to bring down carbon footprint of schools and institutions.
Kumaragurupara Swamigal of Kaumaramadam, R. Mahadevan, Councillor, Coimbatore Corporation, and others also participated in the programme.
The students later staged a skit.