Dayal Nagar, a residential colony located in the city limits, is like an isolated patch of green oasis amidst the concrete jungle. Here, the residents wake up to the friendly chirrup of house sparrows. And they are not one or two in numbers, but in hundreds.
Natural symbiosis
The locality, today, is a classic example of a natural symbiosis that had existed since decades between man and the house sparrow, before the sociable bird disappeared from our backyards.
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While the urban spaces of Visakhapatnam, like many other cities, are trying to find out why the house sparrows have become a rarity, Dayal Nagar springs up many surprises.
“We find them in abundance here. Community farming, plantation of native species and water bowls in the front-yards of every household have created a natural habitat for these birds. We don’t disturb them and they feel safe here,” said Aruna Katragadda, a resident.
Several nature conservationists are making efforts to bring the chirp of the sparrows back in the backyards. And over the past couple of years, there has been a revival of some sorts in residential colonies across the region.
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Ken Foundation, like every year, is gearing up to distribute bird feeding bowls to residents from the first week of April.
“It takes at least two to three years of concerted efforts to create a habitat that the sparrows consider as ‘safe’. And that we have seen happening in the city, with many individuals coming to us to collect the bowls. The enquiries have already started pouring in, something that never happened four years ago when we started the campaign,” said Santosh Pulletykurty of Ken Foundation.
Their campaign will begin from the first week of April. Other organisations like the Paryavarana Margadarsi Vaisakhi will be distributing 10,000 sparrow nests and water bowls made of clay across the region.
According to Mohammed Dilawar, founder and president of the Nature Forever Society (NFS), who has been spearheading conservation efforts to revive population of house sparrows in India for the past 15 years, the sparrows may have crossed the “golden hour crisis” but the “threat is far from over”.
“Our first 15 years of work emphasised on the ways to work towards revival of the species in urban areas. We have been successful in that. We are now focussing on the second phase which will be secondary habitat creation, reaching out at grass-root levels and conducting a systematic monitoring through baseline data collection,” he told The Hindu .
The NFS is present across India with over 30,000 volunteers spread across cities and involvement of over a million people.
Major hurdle
“One of the major hurdles today is man’s total disconnect with nature. The younger generation is plagued with this nature-deficit syndrome which is leading to the wiping away of several common species. The house sparrow represents many such common bird species and is, in a sense, their ambassador,” he added.
The NFS will be giving away national sparrow awards to conservationists on the World Sparrow Day on March 20.