Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Common become uncommon

Only if we miss something the wanting becomes more… and it’s obvious in case of house sparrows. We lost the species almost in towns and cities and the reasons may vary from increased radiation in air to cut down of trees and shortage of grains. House sparrow is a species that survive along with human habitation lost tack while our lifestyle changes.

A pair of sparrow
Today we see the sparrows only far away from cities (that too has become a rare sight) where the changes in architecture and communication laid back or less treated. There were times during childhood I tried to catch the sparrows that often visit our balconies and sometimes they built their hay nest among the sewage pipes and pillars. It was also a lovely scene to see those small sparrows perching the cable wires across the lane in a line and piercing the grains left over the balcony.

Even in late 90s, sparrows were spread across the cities and it was in very short span the sparrows went invisible almost. There are only brief memories perching upon the sparrows and their sweet chirrups were lost echo from ears, but meanwhile the mynas and cuckoo brought comfort around our homes. Sparrows usually pick their nesting places inside or at the entrance of homes, storehouse and elsewhere human reside. In villages, folks tie a bunch of paddies at their house entrance to treat the little birds with grain and help building their nests.

I can’t remember when I last saw a sparrow in our city (Chennai) but I could see them in fair numbers sometime far away from home – such as Western Ghats. Hence I couldn’t see them away from human habitation.  The pair of sparrows you see in the picture above was taken inside the Danish Fort at Tranquebar and I could find a number of house sparrows residing there, perhaps being Danish colony the colonial buildings (a combine of tiled and pillared architecture) here encourages the livelihood of sparrows to lead life at comfort.

Today being a World House Sparrow Day, the thought on sparrows intend to write on them and I feel so pity that we couldn’t provide livelihood for these small birds that share very small space in our neighborhood. I was really sad and shock to read the news in paper here today, where in Karur (a district in Tamil Nadu) number of sparrow is killed every day for meat in a TASMAC bar. Each sparrow was bought for Rs.5 and a plate of meat was sold for Rs.30.  It was totally frustrating; at time when we were looking forward how to bring back the sparrows into our neighborhood, such poaching in innumerable disturbing a lot.

Hope the govt. takes action on those poachers and I don’t know what to say when such thing happens in a government run Wine Shop. Pls stop! 

14 comments:

Preetilata【ツ】 said...

this is by far my most fav post from you. The reason is simple enough--- I love sparrows and they happen to be my fav. bird.

I can't tell you in words how saddened i have always been due to their decreasing numbers. I can't find a sparrow around me anymore. and it's going on for quite a number of years.

O! how they used to fill our home with happiness.

I wish that the scenario changes and their are sparrows in abundance around us once again.

Thank you for this post dear Jeevan.

Preetilata【ツ】 said...

and it is totally disheartening to know that humans don't even spare sparrows when it comes to eating. Given their such small size... one can imagine the number of sparrows killed to serve even half a plate.

Sparrows are known to bring happiness abundant and luck to one's home. How could one think of eating them even in the wildest of wild dream????

Optimistic Existentialist said...

Sparrows are rarer and rarer over here in the states as well. I used to see them ALL THE TIME as a youngster but these days I rarely see them at all.

Renu said...

Till people go veg, we cant avoid it..even i love little birds and when we were in warora, in the evening there would be 50 of them eating the grains put outside for them..it was a feast for the eyes, here I find only pigeons and crows..

TexWisGirl said...

sparrow for meat? wow. had no idea.

George said...

It's sad to hear about the Sparrows becoming more and more rare in cities. Of course, having a meal of sparrows doesn't help the situation. Thanks for an interesting post.

Jyoti Mishra said...

so true... we rarely get to see them these days..
Other than sparrow I don't even remember when was the last time I saw crow in my bacyard

deeps said...

yes yaar..
it s pity that such beautiful creatures are hard to find these days... and this sad story just doesnt end with sparrows...

Vetirmagal said...

Very true. We need to get the nest and start looking out for sparrows. I intend to do so shortly.

link : http://www.shopping.natureforever.org/categories/Nature-Nestboxes/cid-CU00020315.aspx

I saw a number of sparrows in a Restaurant in Bangalore airport lounge.




Betsy Banks Adams said...

Too bad about the Sparrows... We still have them around here --but in our area, there's alot of woods and green areas where they can live. I hate to hear about them using the Sparrows for food... So sad...

Hugs,
Betsy

Destination Infinity said...

I used to see a lot of sparrows in Parrys corner, Chennai where our grandmother's house was located. There used to be a lot of grains and one could spot sparrows almost everywhere. But now, due to the cell phone radiation, packaged grains (no spill-over) and many other reasons, sparrows have left the city.

It's shocking to know that sparrows are killed for meat. This has to stop and sparrow poaching needs to be banned.

Destination Infinity

Namrata said...

I still can't believe how can any human so mercilessly slaughter such tiny, wondrous birds...Few years back at my granny's place we had three nest of sparrows. I miss them all. I miss their chirrup reverberating in my heart.

Indrani said...

Great post for the day!
I believe they will return.

J said...

Sad to know House Sparrows are becoming rare in India, because they are also declining here in the U.K. Let's hope they can 'bounce back'.