During my childhood days,my morning always begins with this little guy,chirping along the window alone or with is girl friend .He is non other than Mr.Sparrow.The bird is an exemplar of a commonplace bird.Being a social bird ,it thrived around we human beings and where food was abundant.The bird is so versatile that it can breed and grow in any type of landscape .It is tolerant of climatic changes and high mortality, provided that adequate food supply is always available.Its so cute to watch them constantly chirping among within their group and Its is evident that they are united,when u scare them,they fly as a single flock.Living in close proximity with humans ,they build their nests in almost every house.Also, the birds were used to pecking at grain in backyards of homes where paddy was cleaned. Grain spills outside godowns or provision stores drew a lot of sparrows twittering over them and they lived happily with their groups.
Their happiness didn't lost for days.Rapid urbanisation and increasing pollution spelled doom on this small little creature.I think the root cause may be,they were not left any space to build nest as the massive buildings leads to cutting trees.The sterile and smooth walls and ledge-less roofs have left them no place to nest.Usage of polythene bags,pesticides on crops,human concern towards them altogether vanished this creature from our site.I had seen some birds in Trichy . when i moved to coimbatore ,I haven't seen any of them,may be they abandoned this growing polluted city a long back.The disappearance of this sparrow is not something new and it is restricted by boundaries.In Europe the population of sparrows fell drastically by up to 85 per cent in London and it declines every corner of the world.
controversies ahead,the main reason for the declines have been caused by a combination of reduced plant food in winter, reduced insect availability for chicks, and reduction in available nest sites.This pictures the modernization agriculture practices and its attributes have been changing over years.Mechanisation of grain harvest and more effective storage of grain and animal feeds all reduced sparrows access to food.
I hope our kids would see them not mere pictures in the future and I'm damn sure that We'd admire them for hours together. But ,as time passes,we will forget all about their existence.
7 comments:
Your post took me back in time! These sparrows were a subject of great awe back then during childhood.
Now, I hardly notice any of them, with the exception of when I travel back home, which thanks to the drudgery of professional life is pretty rare!
I wonder if these wonderous beings of our childhood would be part of our children's lives!!!!!
Sad if that would not happen!
Good post! I'll be sure to come back!
Btw, blogrolling you!
Cheers
Rakesh
Hey, welcome to the blogging world :)
Nice post :) Very very nice and touchy
@Rakesh
The good new is ,these birds still survive in villages and small towns of TamilNadu.But I'm not sure ,How long they can resist from egocentric human being.
Yeah!! liked this post of yours a lot,,, Subramaniya Bharathi has written a poem on this chittukuruvi as called in tamil and also Few of ruskin bond stories and tagore's poems on sparrow..
It is time that we safeguard this little creations of god,,, A sparrow needs somemuch love in its life to live and we ruthlessly don even provide them space to exist!!!
A thoughtful post indeed
also trying reading the beautiful essay " Kaanamal ponnavargalai patriya arivippu" by Jayanthasri Balakrishnan. it talks about how we have succesfully helped in the complete disappearance of sparrow, children, muttram (The open-belows in houses) and elders..
@Bharath
Thanks! as u said ,its true that they need somemuch love in their life.We should pay a lil attention on their existence before they become extinct.
@Bharath
will try to read Jayanthasri Balakrishnan's essay.Sounds intresting :-)
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