Photo by abhishek gaurav on Pexels.com
SparrowMan Move over Superman or Dark Knight, Garden City has its own superhero sans a cape
Even as the country celebrates the World Sparrow Day year after year to give the idea of conservation of sparrows a much needed push, house sparrows have become a rarity in Garden City.
Keeping in mind the dwindling numbers of sparrows, one man has made it his mission to ensure the number of sparrows went up.
Edwin Joseph, popularly known as Sparrow Man, has turned his home into a sanctuary for the little birds. The small, humble yet chirpy sparrows have not just seen a decline in the city but across India.
It all started 12 years back when the family of Edwin Joseph would witness the sudden rush of sparrows to feed on rice that fell from a pan, while his wife would be washing dishes. Joseph talking to a reputed channel says, “ I asked her to put some more rice and their numbers soared. Somebody gave us plants to put in pots for the house sparrows to lay eggs. Then I made small houses for them. When we started out, we would feed around 12 birds in a day. Now there are about 200 house sparrows here.”
Asked about what drove his attention towards sparrows, Joseph tells NDTV, “Since the time I was a kid I saw a lot of sparrows in and around the house. There was a nest for sparrows in our room when I got married. But they suddenly vanished in thin air. Seeing a sparrow stuffed and kept in a glass box at a museum touched me. That is when I realized If we don’t take measures to save them now, we may reach such stage.”
Photo by Joël Hainzl on Pexels.com
Joseph blames residents for disappearance of house sparrows. Primarily blaming reasons like tree felling disappearance of lakes and construction
“The birds are deprived of shelter, shadow, food and water,” he adds.
“Mobile towers and the electromagnetic waves generated from them aggravate the problem. When I visited a country in South America, I couldn’t find any towers in the city,” Joseph says.
Life was quite difficult initially given he was surviving on a pension of Rs. 1600 per month and he got no help and support from the government and the civic body.
But now things are different, he wakes up to the chirping of the house sparrows every morning. What started with uncooked rice grains, now sees sparrows eating cooked rice, millet, idli, dosa, and chapattis among other things.
Much like Edwin, The Nature Forever Society led by Mohammed Dilawar, an Indian conservationist has been doing stellar work in this domain in Nashik. Named one of the “Heroes of the Environment” for 2008 by TIME Magazine he continues efforts to make the Sparrow safe.
Expert opinion suggests with urban nesting spaces going down, rampant construction, felling of trees the humble sparrow and its existence has taken a hit. Extinction in the near future is a possibility that conservationists are not averse to.
Sparrow Man Edwin Joseph
Apart from the sparrow, other birds and animals like jackals, crows have dropped in number owing to human activities and expanding cities.
Sparrows were absent from 50% areas during 2005-2012, compared to pre-2005. 1-30 have been seen frequently, bigger clusters of 30-plus sparrows have seen a 60% drop. In a decade, sparrow nests have dwindled by 65%.
Mumbai interestingly has come up as a haven for birds compared to Hyderabad, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai.
Each year on March 20, World Sparrow Day is observed to make people aware about house sparrows and about what threatens their existence.
The first World Sparrow Day was observed in 2010 across the world.
Comments