Tuesday 15 May 2012

Where has the sparrows gone?

From the Citizen Sparrow:


Sparrows are found all over the world, almost everywhere that humans live. But strangely, sparrow populations have been in decline in many parts of the world, for reasons that are still unclear, although hotly debated! In India, sparrows used to be found in great abundance in all our cities, towns and villages; but sadly not any more.

Where are sparrows still found in India? Where were they found before? In which places have they declined the most?


The answers to these questions are crucial if we are to discover what ails them, and how to bring them back.

National Center for Biological Sciences, Bangalore and few other institutions have collaborated to study the reasons of loss of this bird. They have started with extraction of public based information extraction regarding past distribution and present status. This is being done through an online based survey. It takes only few minutes to provide GOOGLE EARTH locations for past and present distribution of sparrows by an individual which is followed by a short and interesting questionnaire.  

You can help!

By spending 5 minutes documenting the presence or absence of sparrows in localities you know well, both at present and at any time in the past, you will join enthusiasts all over the country in helping sparrows.

You will be asked a brief set of questions, including the precise location of areas you know (or knew) well, aspects of the habitat in these localities, sparrow presence or absence in these localities, and optional information about things like locations of nests, amount of green space, and so on. The questionnaire is very simple to fill, and there is also space for you to share your favourite sparrow stories!

Kindly log on Citizen Sparrow Website today:
Citizen Sparrow will run for two months, and closes on 31 May, so do participate now!

We are grateful to Mr. Nishant Ryu, M.Sc. student of Wildlife Institute of India.

Read more about sparrows: link 1 , link 2