The World Sparrow Day was observed on March 20. The reason of observing the day worldwide was to promote conservation of the bird species, which is depleting very fast due to rapid loss of habitats.
The little bird is commonly known as house sparrow, because the species is generally found around the human habitations and in busy lands close to human settlements. This is the most familiar bird of the human race all over the world. Its household name in Odisha is “Gharchatia”.
The size of this bird is that of a bulbul bird. The bulbul bird is also facing a loss of habitat duo to much human interference. The colour of the bird generally looks ashy having ashy-white below. It is inseparable from human colonies.
The bird is noticed worldwide and is found normally throughout India, right up to 7,000 feet altitude. This is found all over the Himalayas, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri lanka, Burma and apparently absent in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The estuarine climate and mangrove lands are not suitable for the bird, but it is found in the Indian sub-continent. Generally, two races of the species are noticed. Kashmir and North-Western species is larger than the species of other areas. The cold climate suits better than hotter areas to this bird. It is an omnivorous bird. It eats food grain, insects, fruit buds, flower nectar, and kitchen scraps. Sometimes, the birds in large numbers damage ripening crops and gardens, besides food grains stored by man. The roosting of the birds is found in bushy land. The chirping call notes are very familiar in the bamboo clumps, bushy areas and on the green hedges etc. The song of the breeding male with its cocked tail attracts the female bird.
The bird’s nesting season is all over the year, but in Odisha and in its adjoining States it happens after winter and common in early summer.
There is another variety of sparrow known as yellow throated sparrow, which looks pale earth brown with two whitish bars on throat. The female lacks the yellow on throat, and her chest nut shoulder patches are paler than the male. This bird usually is noticed in open thinly wooded country or in the bushy open jungle. It is sighted from Sind to Bengal; also noticed in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri lanka and parts of Burma. \
Both species of sparrow, such as house sparrow and yellow throated sparrow suffer most as the mud-houses in the rural areas and urban areas are increasingly converted into cement structures and the scrubby forests are finished due to rapid urbanisations. The hallow trees are removed from forests.
March 21 is observed every year as the World Forest Day, meant to conserve and develop ecology. The ecology of a region always depends on the regional climate of a place, which also includes all living beings of the earth of that region. The ecological loss means loss of bio-diversities which again includes all the regional flora and fauna. All the domestic flora and fauna influence the regional climate and support the regional environment.
The birds always carry out dissemination of seeds or dispersal of seeds. They also kill harmful insects in the agricultural fields. The droppings of these birds also help in formation of new soils of the mother earth. The fish population is also benefited by the droppings of these birds.
Birds are, therefore, ornamental fauna of nature. The biological process of nature cannot be completed, if the bird population remains unprotected through laws of the nature. Due to indiscriminate uses of pesticides, insecticides and herbicides in the agricultural fields, kitchen gardens and market gardens, the populations of not only the ground birds or domestic birds, but of the entire faunal populations are facing a threat to their lives.
So the ecological conservation practices can only be strengthened if faunal and avifaunal populations are well secured by man. We should remember that the ecological process of nature cannot be sustained if the flora, fauna, and avifauna of a particular climate condition are not protected and propagated well. These three things flora, fauna and avifauna are inseparable where the man is a member. The balance of these three is always maintained by nature.
The State Forest Department and the Odisha Forest Development Corporation are raising roadside and urban plantations throughout the capital city for a relief from the rising climatic temperature. But such an attempt has failed earlier due to wrong selection of forest species. In last five years, the organisations have planted lakhs of species, but due to lack of professional sincerity and honesty this scheme of greening operation is totally failed. For example now large-scale Radhachuda seedlings are planted on the road sides. It is an evergreen plant with shallow root system, very brittle and not browsed by cattle and also a good flowering tree. During summer this plant adorns the street with golden flowers, but raising of this species is not wise as these trees can not withstand a storm or a cyclone. The species is not indigenous to Odisha. This is an exotic plant.
(The writer is a former senior forest officer and an environmentalist. Tel no 9937460649)