Will Chennai wake up to their chirps again?

CHENNAI: Bird lovers may look forward to a chirp-happy World Sparrow Day with an initiative to map the sparrow population across the city. Despite a commendable initiative to distribute 52,000 feeders free of cost across the country by the Nature Forever Society (NFS) in association with the Burhani Foundation (India), Mohammed Dilawar founder of NFS, says, "There is no proper system of monitoring these sparrows in place. In the areas that these feeders have been placed, including Chennai, there have been good feedbacks from people. but the patterns are random." The ornithologist makes it a point to add, "It will take a minimum of two years for trend results to show and such a massive effort to follow India's sparrow population is being implemented for the first time in the country."For Chennai's part, the Madras Naturalists' Society (MNS) which has spearheaded the responsibility, urges members and the general public to look for sparrows in their backyards and neighborhoods. KV Sudhakar, president, MNS explains, "We request people to look out of their homes or work spaces — photograph  and note down whether there are sparrows in the area, as well as the time of  day." In addition, early risers can gear up for a combined session of sparrow spotting and feeding as early as 7.30 am. Sadhana Rajkumar, who organised a similiar event last year, states, "It will be only for about half an hour." She adds, "We request interested participants to bring along millets and other grains for the feeding that will be take place at the Elliots Beach." The starting point will be  Emilios ice-cream parlour (opposite the police booth). Targeted at school students, there will also be an awareness rally at the same venue at 5.30pm.While there are a multitude of reasons for the decline of the once ubiquitous but fast disappearing common house sparrow, ranging from the destruction of its habitat to the increasing microwave pollution from mobile phone towers, perhaps the best Chennai's resident sparrow companions can do is try and keep them comfortable. Bird watcher Kumaran Sathasivam has made it a practice to suspend makeshift nest boxes from his  apartment balcony near Elliots Beach for over a decade now. He says, "My wife and I started out with nests made out of cardboard shoe and detergent boxes and surprising the sparrows readily took to them." In fact, the jubilant chirps of these diminutive birds has now become a tune that the entire family has grown accustomed to at their house. He adds, "Now we can only spread the word that more people welcome these sparrows home, and hopefully they will return."