MEERUT: Most birders are familiar with the dawn chorus of sparrows. The classic chirp is just like the dulcet tones of the cello. To conserve the dwindling population of house sparrows, the forest department in Meerut has come up with a novel idea of asking citizens to click pictures of the bird and send them, along with GPS coordinates, on forestmeerut@gmail.com.
This will follow a slew of measures to conserve the birds. “The idea behind celebrating World Sparrow Day on March 20 is to make people and those in power do something for the conservation of the bird species. It’s just not a day dedicated to the birds. It has more to it. Once the day is gone, we forget them, which should not be the case,” said Rajesh Kumar, divisional forest officer (DFO), Meerut. The initiative, Kumar says, aims at encouraging locals to come together for the cause. The purpose is to locate their habitat, educate people and contribute in a constructive manner to enhance its population.
According to a study by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) the house sparrow population in parts of India has seen a sharp decline. The numbers have dropped up to 88% in Andhra Pradesh and 20% in Kerala, Gujarat and Rajasthan. It said that in coastal areas, the population has dropped to 70 to 80%.
