‘Lack of emotional connect making sparrows extinct’
March 20 celebrated as Sparrow Day in 50 countries
The house sparrow that was declared the ‘State Bird of Delhi’ in 2012 is edging towards extinction due to the lack of an emotional connect, says conservationist Mohammad Dilawar.
Dilawar, who started the practice of observing March 20 as World Sparrow Day in 2010, said that “mindless urbanisation” was leading to a loss of the birds’ natural habitats.
“Common sparrows are going extinct because of mindless urbanisation. They are losing not just their natural habitats but also the essential human touch they need and thrive upon.
“The current generation is so much surrounded by technology that they have forgotten about nature. The indifference caused by a lack of emotional connect has pushed these birds to the edge of extinction,” Dilawar, who also founded Nature Forever Society for India (NFSI), a non-profit organisation to conserve house sparrows, told PTI.
World Sparrow Day, an initiative by NFSI, is now celebrated annually across 50 countries.
The conservationist also attributed the depleting population of sparrows to the increased use of packed food, insecticides in farming, and changing lifestyles, resulting in an inadequate availability of food for the birds.
“Earlier women used to clean grain outside their houses and sparrows would have plenty of food from there. Also the severe use of insecticides in farming is killing sparrows’ primary food source in insects and grains,” Dilawar said.
Sparrows are also rendered homeless, he says, due to the “matchbox styled” architecture.