Bringing back the sparrows

BANGALORE: Stressing the need to involve in the process of preserving urban biodiversity, participants at the International Conference on Sparrows in the city on Tuesday discussed various methods in which sparrows could be saved and ways to involve normal citizens to save sparrows were also addressed. “We need to make efforts to include the mainstream in such exercises. This may include citizen outreach programmes and talking to resident welfare associations. Pragmatic and practical steps are needed,” said Chairman of the Biodiversity Conservation India Ltd (BCIL) Dr Chandrashekar Hariharan. The conference was organised by the Biodiversity Conservation India Ltd along with St Josephs College .  Presenting a session on Conservation Management at the conference, scientist Dr Harish Bhat said, “If sparrows are present in the environment that means  humans can live in that place for several years to come.” He  added that some of the reasons for the loss of habitat for sparrows in the city was the growth of modern architecture, equipment, predators, leaded petrol and mobile towers. A researcher on sparrows, Dr Rajshekar also attributed the low density of sparrow populations in cities to the non-availability of suitable nesting sites. Urban planner Dr Ashwin Mahesh sharing his experiences said that the first step towards bringing back the sparrow population to the city must begin by chalking out an action plan.