World House Sparrow Day - March 20
World Sparrow Day is a day designated
to raise awareness of the House Sparrow
and other common birds to urban environments, and of threats to their
populations, observed on 20 March. It is an international initiative by
the Nature Forever Society of
India in collaboration with the Eco-Sys
Action Foundation (France)
and numerous other national and international organisations across the world.
The
Nature Forever Society was started by Mohammed Dilawar, an Indian
conservationist who started his work helping the House Sparrow in Nashik, and who was named
one of the "Heroes of the Environment" for 2008 by Time for his efforts. The idea of marking a
World Sparrow Day came up during an informal discussion at the Nature Forever
Society's office. The idea was to earmark a day for the House Sparrow to convey
the message of conservation of the House Sparrow and other common birds and also
mark a day of celebration to appreciate the beauty of the common biodiversity
which is taken so much for granted. The first World Sparrow Day was celebrated
in 2010 in different parts of the world. The day was celebrated by carrying out
different various kinds of activities and events like art competitions,
awareness campaigns, and sparrow processions as well as interactions with media.
World
Sparrow Day also has a broader vision to provide a platform where people who
are working on the conservation of the House Sparrow and other common birds can
network, collaborate and exchange conservation ideas which will lead to better
science and improved results. It aims to provide a meeting ground for people
from different parts of the world to come together and form a force that can
play an important role in advocacy and in spreading the awareness on the need
of conserving common biodiversity or species of lower conservation status.
Objectives of World
Sparrow Day
· To
bring together individuals and organizations working for conservation of
sparrows and urban biodiversity
· Build
a network with the help of the website for better linkages between like-minded
people
· Use
the network in the long term to carry out advocacy, do collaborative research
and form national and international consortiums
· Draw
the attention of government agencies and the scientific community for
conservation of common bird species and urban biodiversity
· Study
the health of the environment since common birds like sparrows are
bio-indicators of the ecosystem
Reasons for decline
of sparrows
·
Change in building architecture: With increasing
number of match-box type high-rise buildings that provide lot of
nesting sites to larger birds such as pigeons in the form of ducts, external
facades covering drainage pipes, etc, smaller birds such as sparrows have a
bleak chance of nesting.
·
Urban green desert: Today there are very
few green areas in cities. Gardens are full of exotic species of plants which
have little role to play in the local ecology and are of little use to native
birds and insects. Moreover, there is also lack of trees that provide food and shelter
to local birds. The exotic plants often consume greater quantities of vital
resources like water and require large quantities of chemical fertilizers and
pesticides. There is an urgent to need to create awareness among people to
replace these plant species with native species.
·
Changing attitude and life styles: The changing fast
paced lifestyles of urban and semi-urban areas have also reflected in people’s
attitude towards birds and biodiversity. People today are too busy in their
everyday activities and urban entertainment options and have little time,
sensitivity and inclination to think about birds. In the past people shared a
symbiotic relationship with animals and birds. People accepted co-existence
with other life forms and would not mind sparrows building nests in their
houses. Changing lifestyles have also robbed sparrows and other small birds of
their feeding grounds. Open grain markets and sorting of grains at home have
been replaced by packaged and pre-cleaned products.
·
Radiation from mobile towers and cell phones: Rising number of
mobile phone towers and cell phones resulting in microwave radiation is a
silent killer of small birds.
Today’s common
species are tomorrow’s threatened species, if timely conservation measures are
not initiated. The best example is that of vultures, which till a decade ago,
were one of the most common raptor in the countryside. Today the vultures are
on the brink of extinction.
Source:
http://www.worldsparrowday.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
