The Information & Technology Department of Sri Venkateshwara College of Engineering at Pennalur has developed an Android application “Save Our Sparrows”, to figure out how to drive the conservation of the house sparrow.
The app was launched on March 20, which is World Sparrow Day.
Around 200 students of the Department were engaged in the development of this application.
“It took two months to develop the app. The user can pin the location, where a house sparrow has been sighted. The app has a provision for posting a photograph of the bird. Once a sizeable number of sightings are reported, a map about the distribution of the bird will be drawn up. After this, efforts can be taken to increase the bird’s population in these areas. The response to the app has been encouraging. So far, there have been many sightings of the house sparrow in North Chennai localities, including Royapuram, Old Washermenpet, Tondiarpet, Manali and Korukkupet. There have been sightings of the passerine bird at Ambattur, Triplicane and Besant Nagar, ” says Vishnu Ram, an alumnae of the college.
The students’ team also visited localities in North Chennai and distributed wooden nest boxes to residents.
“Students, teaching faculty and alumnae of the college pooled in money and raised ₹70,000. With this fund, we placed orders for 100 wooden nest boxes. They were distributed to those who reported sightings of the bird in north Chennai.”
The team has plans to develop a web application as well.
The App can be accessed on Google Play.
Those who are not tech-savvy can call 98406 19193 and inform us about the place where the house sparrow was sighted.
