Every year, World Sparrow Day is celebrated on March 20 to raise awareness and protect sparrows. These little and beautiful birds need us for their survival in this ever-growing concrete jungle while we humans also need them for our ecological system to be balanced.
The theme for World Sparrow Day is “I Love Sparrows”. The theme has been inspired by the hope that more and more of us will celebrate the relationship between human and sparrows.
For the first time the day had been observed on March 20, 2010. Since then it has been celebrated every year across the world on that day.
With their population drastically declining largely in urban areas over the last 20 years, its chirping has faded.
Ornithologists attribute a number of reasons for the decline of the house sparrow, Passer domesticus. They include lack of nesting sites in modern buildings, use of pesticides and non-availability of food.
Use of heavy doses of pesticides in kitchen gardens and fields results in the decline of invertebrate fauna. Small insects play a very important role in the survival of newborn sparrows.
Reduced spillage of grains, improved storage, decline in the practice of feeding sparrows, increased predation by owls and cats and competition for food by other species, including pigeons, have also threatened the existence of sparrows.
Mohammed Dilawar, the man behind the first celebration World Sparrow Day, which falls on March 20, said five species of sparrows are found in India.
Out of the five, only one species is migratory. The most abundant and widespread is Passer domesticus.
(With inputs from IANS)
Ms Kalinga