March 20 is a very special date in the life of a birder, for it is dedicated to the House Sparrow. Thanks to the concerted awareness and action campaign, the house sparrow has been taken off the red list of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). As a result, the day has become celebratory.
Declared as endangered in 2009, the house sparrow has made a comeback. It was to boost the conservation efforts that the Shiela Dixit-led government in Delhi declared the house sparrow the state bird in 2011. Eleven years later, the Delhi government opened a ‘Goraiya Gram’ as a special habitat for the house sparrow in Garhi Mandu city forest on the banks of the Yamuna. A review of this project along with a count of the house sparrows is expected soon.
My visit to the park is still due, but meanwhile, I haven’t got over my obsession with the bird, and no matter which city I go to, I make it a point to ask my hosts whether they have spotted the house sparrow, known as ‘goraiya’ in Hindi. The obsession has paid off. The wave created by the strong thoughts—I believe in Nicolas Tesla’s words, who said, “If you want to know the secrets of the universe, think about it in terms of frequency and vibration”, has helped me find the house sparrow in many places, including the concrete jungle that is the Dwarka Expressway between Gurugram and Delhi.
The disappearance of the bird upset me very deeply. For it tells a story about the alarming levels to which we have vandalised nature, imperilling not just the house sparrow, but also our own survival: our foodgrains, laden with chemicals, are un-havable for the house sparrow; our homes, because of the new ways of construction, can no longer house the bird and our air waves, jammed with mobile telephone towers, are obstructive to the house sparrow and many other birds.
In the light of these depressing facts, the reported turn around in the status of the house sparrow is a remarkable indicator of the sturdy efforts of non government and government organisations, and individuals who worked passionately to bring back the chirp into the air. It is also a sign that we humans are capable of great good. It is the tide of human positivity aloft which the house sparrow is coming back to our lives, making the 20th day of March meaningful and happy.
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