Why are there fewer sparrows now when compared to the past?
“There are multiple reasons for the decline. The major cause being pesticides,” says Dr Asad Rahmani, Director, Bombay Natural History Society. “They have killed a lot of soft-bodied insects. Young house sparrows feed on such insects — they are almost gone now. I can hardly see earthworms in the soil these days. It's because of all the chemicals we have brought in. The young ones are not healthy since the food they eat is harmful. They just die.”
The Citizen Sparrow initiative was launched on April 1. It will close on May 31. Spend a few minutes on the ‘Citizen Sparrow' website in order to do your bit for the bird.
1 comment:
It is not just the sparrows. The crows which used raid our kitchen (in Chennai, and in rural Andhra Pradesh) on a daily basis when I was a kid, don't bother us any more. I see them flying around occasionally, but not in earlier numbers, and they do not try to enter the house. Their place as kitchen raiders has instead been taken over by bands of monkeys, which, I guess, are trying to adapt to an urban environment, after the loss of their original habitat.
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