Spare A Thought for Sparrows

CHENNAI: For D Ganeshan, professor at SRM University and the man behind the Environment Monitoring and Action Initiative (EMAI), this year’s World Sparrow Day (March 20) was set to mark a significant milestone. He would have proudly distributed, through his growing network of sparrow warriors, a thousand nest boxes for sparrows in the city. While the coronavirus outbreak and the subsequent lockdown (partial) has put paid to the plans, Kuruvi Ganeshan is content with the success the initiative has managed to deliver in less than two years — over 600 and 300 families committed to the cause of sparrow conservation.

And he is confident of taking the initiative to more enthusiasts; after all, even the initial momentum had been quite incidental, he says. It was in 2013 that Ganeshan got initiated into the world of sparrow conservation by T Murugavel, professor at the engineering college he studied in. A sparrow survey in north Madras had led to the fledgling effort to try and house them in safer quarters. Ganeshan began buying nest boxes and distributing it to whoever was willing to listen and help out the winged visitors. But reception had been very poor.

It was years later, when Ganeshan himself was a professor at SRM University that a student suggested that he rope in a private school headmaster and fellow enthusiast in the scheme. That was how Dhanalakshmi Higher Secondary School, Royapuram, became the first school to take the initiative forward. With students stepping in with great fervour, nest boxes soon found a home in many north Chennai households, narrates Ganeshan. Emboldened by this success, he began taking it to more and more schools. When buying the nest boxes worked out to be an expensive affair, he started sourcing the materials and making them himself. For something that still continues to be a weekend job for the full-time professor, that it has recorded 90 per cent success in the two years keeps him fuelled, he remarks.

Despite the setback presented by the temporary shutdown, Ganeshan has plenty to look forward to. He already has several like-minded people calling in from various other districts. “I want to organise the people who have reached out to me from different districts into local teams, have them get permission from schools and take the initiative forward. It’s already happening; they have roped in a few schools. My goal is to have a thousand boxes distributed in each of these districts,” he declares. It’s only a matter of time.

Saying it with nests

Rock sparrows are known to decorate their nests with feathers of other birds. Nests that were fitted with blue feathers (their favourite colour) resulted in the hen laying more eggs, caring for them better. The decorations are thought to be a status symbol.

Mix & match

DNA research has shown that 15% of offspring are the result of either the cock or hen (sparrow) mating with another partner, confirming the sparrow’s reputation for sexual infidelity.

Source: NIE

Image Courtesy: Mongbay