Yes, we should rethink our responsibility as the most evolved species of the earth’s ecosystem. We have continuously degraded our ecosystem for our vested greed. Overuse of chemical pesticides, fertilisers and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) seeds, along with the advent of radio waves-based communication devices and other electrical and digital appliances (making a mess of disorganised high power electrical wires) have forced the house sparrow species to vanish from the socio-ecological habitat where they were protecting humans from disadvantageous insects and pests.
Anthropogenic interventions upset the normal food-chain and left the Passer (sparrow) species endangered. The house sparrow (Passer domesticus) was once the most friendly avian species, sharing a common habitat and serving to protect the human species, ensuring a high yield of crops organically, besides being a natural defence against mosquitoes. Now, they have fallen prey to the betrayal and unending, obliterating greed of humans. There has been an unprecedented decline in the number of the house sparrow (Gauraiya) species from our natural ecological habitat.
It’s high time for us to work on stabilising our food-chain dynamics to ensure a sustainable approach to conserve the biodiversity. We should work on adopting an integrated strategy to increase the population of such endangered species.
A number of steps can be taken.
- Providing spaces to such homely species in our homes.
- Structural arrangements in the multi-storied apartments for such human-friendly species.
- Green belt around our homes. We should also build wooden homes for the sparrows.
- The government should work on organising the electrical power wires, and there needs to be an advanced urban planning to attract such friendly bird species.
- Removal of mobile towers from the highly-dense human habitations.
- Showing our utmost love and affection to such friendly birds.
- Making your kids aware of the friendly nature of such birds.
- Schools should work to introduce the practical implications of conserving sparrows.
Leah Yodico, a former Dutch income tax official has shared her experience of how Dutch laws provide special protection measure for sparrows. While sharing an incident, Mrs Yodico said, “I am glad sparrows are protected by the Dutch law. I can still remember the Dutch Domino Day 2005 trying to break the World record. Four days before the show when a sparrow flew into the building and landed on several bricks, thereby causing thousands to fall, out of the four million, the Dutch television DeMol hired a shooter to kill the sparrow. The Dutch animal protection organisation went to court and won the case. The killer of the sparrow was prosecuted and had to pay a fine of 200 euro.”
We should take care of these birds, and we need to make efforts to rescue them from the anthropogenically-created adversities of climate. Sparrows are vital members of our ecosystem, so they must be protected. Now we need to understand the economics of our ecosystem and its biodiversity. Protecting and conserving sparrows would minimise the cost of pesticides we use daily.
We should show our love to sparrows, conserve and protect them, and ensure that they return. It was the World Sparrow Day this week, but we have to work hard to ensure that they are reinstated in their natural habitat.