Time to fall in love with house sparrows on World Sparrow Day

20 March, 2013

World Sparrow Day (WSD) is a day designated to raise awareness about conservation of House Sparrow and other common birds in urban environments. It is observed on 20 March as an international initiative by the Nature Forever Society (NFS) of India in collaboration with the Eco-Sys Action Foundation of France.

The NFS was started in Nashik by Mohammed Dilawar, an Indian conservationist, who later floated the idea of WSD to appreciate the beauty of the common urban biodiversity, which is taken so much for granted by most of us.

The first WSD was celebrated in 2010 in different parts of the world with a vision to provide a platform for bird lovers to network, collaborate and exchange conservation ideas for common biodiversity or species of lower conservation status.

According to NFS, in a matter of four years, today the WSD is being celebrated across more than 50 countries with functional conservation projects. In India, the Common Bird Monitoring and Citizen Science Project are popular across the country.

NFS message on the eve of WSD is: “Birds and animals are an integral part of our environment and it’s our pride and our responsibility to work towards their safe future. This includes mapping birds, feeding them, providing them a safe environment, treating injured birds and stopping or reporting bird trade.”

According to Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), the reasons for decline of sparrows in urban areas are the change in building architecture to match-box type high-rise buildings; creation of urban green desert by having exotic species of plants; fast paced lifestyles insensitive to biodiversity; and radiation from mobile towers and cell phones. Some recent scientific studies have proved that the rising number of mobile phone towers and cell phones are resulting in microwave radiation is a silent killer of small birds.

The NFS has urged people on their website www.worldsparrowday.org to put up nest boxes and bird feeders around their houses to connect with the birds and provide them food and shelter to conserve common bio-diversity.