Until about ten / twenty years back, the house sparrow was one of the commonest birds in Mysore and was one of the most numerous and regular visitors to our houses frequently. When I was studying in primary School at Mysore in early 1980’s we use to see the Sparrows flying frequently. With their “cliv cliv” noise was a wake up call for all of us at home. First thing we use to do is to put some rice for them and then go to bath. In Agrahara Circle we use to see Sparrows in bunches and we use to play with them. But after 1990’s, where are these Sparrows gone? Nobody knows. Here is much evidence that this once abundant bird has declined dramatically in recent years. It is now common knowledge that house sparrows have disappeared, or become far less common, in many places where they were formerly abundant. This applies both in the Mysore and many of the suburbs, as well as some of the surrounding towns and indeed a number of cities in other parts of the country. May be these are some of the factors which affected the Sparrow to run away from Mysore or from other places. Noise pollution Environment pollution Factors relating to food supply o Reduction in insect food supply for the young A study has blamed a lack of aphids in early spring for a lack of breeding success in house sparrows’. A decline in the availability of invertebrates (such as aphids) for feeding young is also suggested as a major factor in house sparrow decline. Changes in agricultural practice Changes in agricultural practices, in particular the shift to monoculture crop plantings, have been suggested as the cause. That dose not means that we should advance to a new technology. But also we should take care of our Eco-System. Disease Declines on this scale have been attributed to disease. Changes relating to availability of nest sites Changes in roof design may be an issue in some areas of older housing undergoing renovation, as modern roof repairs may prevent access to the roof space for birds. However, a decline has also been noted in areas where roof replacement is less widespread. Here it is relevant to mention what Mr. Tony Blair; Prime Minister, UK mentioned “The house sparrow, once more cockney than the cockneys, is now a rarity in London”. Because of this the UK government proposed a plan called “House Sparrow Action Plan” Raise awareness of the need for biodiversity conservation by focusing attention on the decline in the house sparrow and its importance as a cultural emblem. Establish the cause(s) of decline in the population of house sparrows and, if possible, undertake measures to reverse the decline. These are some of the actions taken by the UK Government. Same way, we Mysoreian let us join together and protect our House Sparrow and protect our nature.
Exhaustive list, Venkat. Well done. At a speech I delivered last year, at the release of a collection of limmericks, I happened to trace the primary reason for the disappearance of Kannada, romantic poets, and sparrows to our changing lifestyle.
Pollution - of the soil and atmosphere -, cell phone signals, and modern architecture are generally attriubted to the disapperance of sparrows.
I agree, there has been a sudden disappearance of the house sparrow. I have seen them in our TK Layout area till late 1990's in abundance. I have not been living continuously in Mysore for many years now but on my last longish visit back home (couple of days actually), I think it was late April/early May (?), I saw a group of sparrow on a tree at the corner of the Sowcar Chenniah Road and 13th Main in TK Layout. I will be looking out for thisgroup to see if they still hand around the area. I had to check and double check with others to make sure that these were the same type of sparrows that we grew up with, having them all around. I am for all the efforts to help sustain our local bird population. Any leadership from Mr. Ranga, in this direction, will be helpful and many of us can co-operate, as much as we possibly can.
On the other day myself and Mr. Vijayendra Rao were discussing about the cleanliness and polution control in the City, I think in this direction let us start our first step and protect the evnironment. As Capt. Anup mentioned about taking leadership, I think Mr. Vijendra Rao will be the right person. He has some good ideas in his pocket. We all meet once and chart out a plan. What do you say Capt. Anup?
My handicapis that I am not in Mysore most of the time. I have been in Singapore mostly for the last couple of months and except for a side trip to Delhi and the US coming up, I can be in Mysore (hopefully) for a day or two and in that case we can definately meet. My assignment here in Sing will be over August end it seems, at this time.
On the subject, we must somehow get more people involved. It is a worthy effort and we must start somewhere and protect our environment.
Mr. Ranga, You have forgotten the most important factor afterall. The man upstairs must have heard the many millions of people who found their gardens/patios/balconies desecrated with birdpoop, cursing the bird into extinction.
Is it logical to think that the lovely birds, with whom we were closely associated, have taken birth as human beings after they become extinct, if one believes in the reincarnation theory? I genuinely get a doubt to witness the thick density of human population which has made us to drible our way even on footpath like in hockey or soccer!!!!.
I strongly disagree that the common sparrow has desecrated anyone's gardens or balconies as Nihil says. it certainly did'nt do that to mine and I have been around on the planet for a little more than four decades. I think humans, lots of them in india at least, are so dirty that they litter all over the place, their houses are dirty and smelly and generally everything looks run down. Its because we don't care. We don't care about our own environment, we don't care about our birds and animals, our people pee on the sidewalk, we don't care and we spit around everywhere. Our people do this even when they go to the US, and here in Singapore, the only time I saw a guy pee in a back lane was off Serangoon Road in Little India and it was a guy from our neck of the woods. There are lots of toilets here in Singapore for the public and it is free but an indian is more familiar with his element. Sorry mate, I prefer birds to your teeming careless, dirty population. And I was never shy for words. The guy upstairs is easily blamed for everything. Sorry to the rest of the readers for I have digressed from the main topic a bit.
Dear Nihil, what Capt. Anup said is true....but at the same time we Indians should start promote clenliness and to protect our biodiversity conservation. For example, in a paddy field snake is not there means there will a lot of rats which starts spoil the paddy. In the same way each creature has its own mission to this world. So we Indians, no as humans should protect our mother nature and our planet.
My earlier comment was made in jest. Seemed obvious to me, evidently not so to others. Seriously, if curses could lead anything to extinction, we wouldn't have any politicians anymore.
Don't take it personally my friend, I did not think this was a forum for a joke but hey, if thats what it was, good. What do we do about the sparrows and other creatures that some of us care about? Thats what we need to discuss on this forum. Thanks for your patience.
Yes, disapperance of house sparrows is heart wrenching. I recall swarm of house sparrows landing in the courtyard where mother used to sit patiently cleaning rice keeping on her lap in the mora and throwing away those grains with husk intact or nucchu. The sparows would gladly nibble at it. It was such a pretty picure watching them and when the children used to suddenly dart in they would fly away in a bunch and land back later. Could it be one of the important causes?
I have mentioned this elsewhere; the last I think I saw them, was inside a cracked solar lamp-shade of the street-corner light in front of my house. The crack had caused an opening, wide enough for the two birds, a female and its partner, to enter and exit their home. It was a spectacle to see them in their well-lit single-room tenement.
This subject needs serious attention. Just like what Silent Spring did for environmental movement, finding or even speculating reasons for its disappearnce may do for environmental protection for Mysore. We need some tipping point for Mysore to awake the sleeping citizens. Let us hope the subject of sparrow may provide such a cause.
Dear Shenoy, Let us form a group.....I think Capt. Anup will also join us after August....We all meet once and chart out plan..Mr. Vijayendra Rao is our key member, infact team leader. Let us start in a right direction to protect our sparrows or gubbachhies.....what do you say Mr. Shenoy
With a group of committed people such as those mentioned by Mr. Ranga can make a difference. I am sure all the persons who have put in their comments are keen on safeguarding our environment. My visit to Mysore is brief, between 15th and 18th of June and then to the US, Sydney and Singapore till end August. So, pls do carry on without me and whenever I can, I will help in whatever means possible.
Regarding the sparrows themselves, my wife and I were walking around near our hotel in Singapore yesterday morning and we found the same gubbachis here as well. That is not a surprising matter, but what is surprising is that these were living around apartment complexes, right next to very busy roads with people and traffic congestion. Because Singapore is small, people and traffic density is also high. Also, Singapore has many cell phone towers as well and cellphone user density is also very high. So, i am not sure if the reasons that we are thinking of, are the reasons for the sparrows moving out of Mysore. I wonder if it is because we may be using certain types of pesticides or chemicals or something else that is driving them away? Or is it the lack of adequate grains and such other natural food missing in our environment? Mr. Bapu satyanaraya did mention about the food part, in his comment.
That's a interesting point that Captain makes. I don't remember where exactly I read about the link between cell phones and disappearance of sparrows. So, it may not be correct to link the two.
Another factor (or maybe not) that came to my mind is the type and number of trees that exist these days as opposed to what we had earlier. I remember right up to 2000/2001 we had a gobli tree in an empty site nehind our house (gobli is a very thorny, brush type of tree) and that tree used to harbour a large family of gubbachis. We used to think that perhaps the birds were fond of the gobli mara because of the safety of being able to fly in and out of th thorn thicket while almost no other creature would be able to scale the tree without getting hurt bacdly by the thorns. I don't see too many gobli trees around. In fact none around, the one in the empty site got chopped down when they built a house.
Thats the problem Vijendra. Axe all the trees and then wonder where the birds have all gone! There was a group of gobli trees on the kuvempunagar double road going pas Ramakrishnanagar Circle. Those trees were rather close to the double road and hosted a lot of bird species. I am not sure whether that clump of gobli trees are still there or not. Got to take a look this time when I get home briefly.
As for widening roads, it is not going to solve the impending congestion. It has not done it anywhere else, no matter how wide the road gets, the volume of traffic growth is much bigger and faster than you can widen the road. Unless we de-centralize everything, make people not come to city center for every thing, unless we improve the mass transit system, there's no point in half hearted measures and no point in widening roads as an extremely short term measure.
It's not our celloloid heroes and heroines who love trees. We love them, too, though our love of the cover is not for the same reason. We had a Singapore Cherry tree in front of our house. We actually had two, on either side of the gate, but one had to be chopped off for the reason that I will explain shortly.
We chose this particular species because it is shade-bearing and grows fast, and we urgently wanted to provide some additional protection from the morning sun for the maindoor. What we did not know was it also creates lot of mess underneath - both the leaves and the chrries fall in abundance and regularly and the latter burst open easily and the exposed pulp attracts flies. Left without any garden space, we chose to park these trees, as also a couple of other plants outside our compound, as is the practice among middle class Mysoreans, but a clear case of encroachment of public property.
Our neighbour, whom we could not choose, did not take kindly to the presence of the tree closer to her house. It was not because of the illegality of its existence, but because of the dead leaves that it shed inside her terrirtory. She did not object to it, but her disapproval expressed itself in a rather unique way. Her logic was akin to the mathematical axiom that the shortest distance between any two points is a straight line; she believed the shortest route to the garbage bin was the neighbour's compound. Given to pious disposition, this custom-bound Indian woman would start her day by cleaning her compound and clearing the muck so gathered across the wall, inside our compound.
In India, we don't always win or lose; we surrender. We surrendered. The tree was brought down. The shade was gone. It was gone for the few tiny birds which had made it their chirping joint. What now protects our door is the shadow of grief.
Thanks for the advice, Captain. It speaks a great deal about your love of nature, particularly gubachchis. I will follow it. Perhaps, when I have my own farm, as yet a distant dream.
