BY D N Singh
Just few days have passed since we celebrated World Sparrow Day (March 20) . But for whom are we doing this tokenism? For some whom we failed to conserve, for the ones whom we made homeless and shockingly for the little avian species whose meat we devoured on the dining tables!
Winter in March and perhaps worse to come with footsteps of a deadly summer already audible..
Anyway this can be said that climate change or whatever but the environment is at a crossroad which has started to consume so many precious elements including species.
Not to walk back to decades but what is painfully missing from the live pools is the chirping angels, the Sparrows. The little ones have, as if, vanished in the gloom of a polluted environment where the toxics rule.
House sparrows
The lovely birds are among many species that are virtually unseen. Either they have lost their way to survival or not there anymore. Just thriving somewhere and somehow.
A sad spectacle! The ones who break the early dawns’ quietness with their lovely twittering are no more audible.
From the thatched houses in villages, in small niches in wells or on any space carved on trees or in the angles on street light poles, they used to nest on. That is abruptly missing.
What a sight it was when they flap their wings in dusty roads and flap back the dust around, are all on a literal diminish.
Shame!
"They lost their shelters due to human activities such as deforestation, hunting and poaching" said Biswajit Mohanty, environmental activist.
Who used to, with their tiny beaks peck the insects and other hazardous stuff from the crops in the fields have become unthinkable now.
Harrowing
"Human has become their worst enemy as is evident from factors like urbanisation, replacement of ventilators with air conditioners in houses, radiation from mobile towers, pollution, use of insecticides and pesticides in farms and emission of harmful gases are considered the main reasons that led to a drastic decline in the population of sparrows" rued Mohanty.
The house sparrow has grown with humans, known only to live in close contact with us, instead of forests.
It has been a wonderful coexistence as they need small spaces in buildings and backyard gardens but in the last two decades or more their decline has become perplexing even in villages let alone cities.
One may not recall when he or she had spotted the sparrow last.
"Meanwhile they have been listed to the Red-list for its rapid decline in their population by the Royal Society for Protection of Birds triggering a concern for immediate conservation all over the world" Mohanty added.
Shocking that besides the sparrows even many others like Messenger pigeons have become a rarity.
Shooting the messengers!
From a jolly good population of 5- 10 billion in the 19th century now those birds have practically vanished and not because of any habitat destruction or ailments but merciless poaching of messenger pigeons for meat only.
In India it is pathetic
Sparrows, the wonderful frolicking avian species, is another fast disappearing `common` bird. This avian species can still be spotted at over two-thirds of the world`s land surface.
But reports are pouring in from all over India and around the world of rapid decline in the populations of these once abundant birds.
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