World Sparrow Day 2021: Who will love a little sparrow?

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<strong>Which is the first bird you saw in your childhood? For me, it was the house sparrows. There was a time when the ubiquitous sparrow's chirping woke up most people in the morning in both rural and urban areas.</strong></p>
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During those days, I used to see sparrow nests all around, the small birds used to be in the verandas and balconies early in the morning. The bird was an integral part of our daily life. Remember the song of the late 1970s – <em>Ek Chidiya Anek Chidiya</em>…from the good old days of Doordarshan? While one may or may not remember the animation film, almost everyone has fond memories of the sparrows featured in it.</p>
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However, over time, these birds started vanishing and their place was taken by long electric cables in the balcony and their nesting places were replaced by concrete jungles of the city.</p>
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Due to the alarming decline in numbers, a bird which is so commonly seen in our houses, has now been included by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in its 'Red Data' list of threatened species in 2002 alongside the glamorous snow leopard, tiger, and red panda.</p>
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<img alt="World Sparrow Day" src="https://www.indianarrative.com/upload/news/house_sparrow_by_Kamal_sahansi.jpg" style="width: 100%; height: 100%;" /></p>
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<em><strong>Photograph by Kamal Sahansi </strong></em></p>
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Scientists first started to notice a decline in the number of house sparrows in the 1980s.  And it was followed by several campaigns, outreach and awareness programmes, research surveys to understand the decline of a species that had learned to exist in and around human habitations and was found in huge numbers even in urban areas.</p>
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The House Sparrow (scientific name, Passer domesticus) is so named because it has always been associated with human habitation. Sparrows are as important to our ecology system as tigers, as Chinese Communist dictator and sparrow mass murderer Mao Zedong foolishly found out and it is time we were worried.</p>
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Right from childhood, sparrows have fascinated me immensely. During my childhood they were all over, in and around us. We had sparrows nesting everywhere in our home and in those days no one even minded them nesting inside the home.</p>
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They were a part of the family.</p>
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Scientific studies have established that the house sparrows follow us everywhere and simply cannot live where we don't. Fossil evidence from a cave in Bethlehem dating back 4,00,000 years suggests that the house sparrow shared its space with early humans.</p>
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According to a 2018 Royal Society of London report, the bond between humans and sparrows goes back 11,000 years, and the starch-friendly genes of the house sparrow tell us a story linked to our own evolution. Agriculture, the study said, triggered similar adaptation in three very different species – dogs, house sparrows and humans.</p>
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Conservationists attribute the decline in the population of house sparrows to the unfriendly architecture of our homes, chemical fertilisers in our crops, noise pollution that disturbs acoustic ecology and noxious exhaust fumes from vehicles. The debate about whether the digital revolution has jammed the air passages is inconclusive, but common people say it is no coincidence that the house sparrow started disappearing in the late 1990s, when mobile phones came to India.</p>
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In India, conservationist Mohammed Dilawar, who has done his master's in environmental science, became interested in birds early on. He set up the Nature Forever Society in 2009 and the society initiated the Common Bird Monitoring Programme, an innovative project to monitor common birds. It was launched in Mumbai, India, March 2010 on World Sparrow Day.</p>
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Concerted efforts are being made to bring back the house sparrow. According to Mohammed Dilawar, "Earlier, the house sparrow and other common species were not considered conservation material by scientists, and common people were far removed from conservation as a subject."</p>
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A vigorous campaign by Dilawar and his organisation, led to March 20 being observed as the 'World Sparrow Day' and the house sparrow being declared the state bird of Delhi and Bihar.</p>
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Bird lovers and wildlife officials say that people need to be made aware that the sparrow shares the space with us in the cities.</p>
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Many organisations have been working together to bring sparrows back home.</p>
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The theme for the World Sparrow Day is: “I love sparrows and I will do my best to protect them.”</p>
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The little <em>Gauraiya</em> needs us, desperately.</p>
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Simon and Garfunkel wrote this song long back:</p>
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Who will love a little sparrow?</p>
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Will no one write her eulogy?</p>
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"I will", said the Earth</p>
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"For all I've created returns unto me</p>
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From dust were ye made and dust ye shall be"</p>