Nature
Where have all the sparrows gone
Gagandeep Singh Ghuman

Maybe it is a bit too much to ask from you, but this week take some time off from your busy 24 x 7 routine, switch off your idiot box, come out and try to look for sparrows around the house. Lucky, if you spot some. Once sparrows were perhaps the most ubiquitous of all bird species. They could be found in flocks, building their nests in the alcoves, flitting carelessly in the house.

Although the phenomenon of vanishing sparrows has been observed all over India but one would think that Chandigarh, with one of the highest green cover for any city in India, would be a honourable exception. The answer is an emphatic no. So what accounts for this massive decline in the sparrow count? Experts are divided in their opinion but of all possible reasons attributed to this phenomenon, one seems particularly startling.

Dr Ravinder Kohli is a Professor at the Department of Environment, Panjab University, and has been doing research on this phenomenon for some years now. He is convinced that the electro magnetic radiations emitted by the mobile phone towers have sounded the death knell for the sparrow. " It is as yet an unproven hypothesis but all the same my research indicates that the strong rays emitted by mobile phones have led to the present decline in their population."

Surprisingly, there is no base line data, no ecological parameters available in India on birds. So, if you want to compare the density of birds today with, let’s say, 10 years ago, there will be no data to support or dispute your finding because there has never been a base line on which you could base your finding in the first place. "Ecological studies are rare in India and there is no way that we can prove with the help of empirical data whether there has been a reduction in the sparrow count or not," according to an expert.

However, data is not required to prove what is visible to the naked eye. We are losing sparrows and we are losing them fast. One possible reason could be the incessant use of chemicals and pesticide in the grains; a food on which the sparrows have depended traditionally. Also with its sharp beak, it is almost impossible to shift from grains to other food and with grains now laced with chemicals, extinction is an immediate possibility. It is said that the switchover from leaded petrol to unleaded petrol sounded the death knell of small insects that the sparrows feed on. Methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBT), a constituent of unleaded petrol, is said to poison these insects.

Loss of habitat seems to be another major reason for the decline in the numbers of sparrows. Old-styled houses, with alcoves and exposed rafter have given way to new terraced houses that offer little nesting space. Lt-Gen Baljit Singh ( retd), avid environmentalist, feels that the loss of their natural habitat could be a major reason for the decline of the sparrow. "Earlier, there were sun breakers in buildings, which was an ideal place for them to roost. Even the hedges that separated the houses were roosting sites. The kikar tree was another roosting site. Now all that is gradually vanishing." Loss of a tree means loss of home, loss of habitat. Generally, sparrows do not roost in the same tree canopy with the other birds like crows, mynas and parrots. They have some roosting-site fidelity and seek specific trees, closer to their feeding habits. If we loose that tree, we loose the sparrow. There is a need to realise this network of nature, if we want to save any species from going extinct and it is something in which we have proved to be incorrigible failures.

Once sparrows could enter our houses with impunity, bringing in unsightly nest material like straw, rags and build nests in the lofts. Now it seems that the culture of harmonious co-existence, of sharing the space, mental and physical, is passé.

Tigers, vultures, peacocks and now sparrows; the list is long and painfully unending.

HOME