HOUSE SPARROW
Unfriendly architecture of our homes, chemical fertilizers in our crops, noise pollution that disturbs acoustic ecology and noxious exhaust fumes from vehicles. The debate about whether the digital revolution has jammed the air passages is inconclusive, but common people say it is no coincidence that the house sparrow started disappearing in the late 1990s, when mobile phones came to India.
. The common bird that lived in the cavities of our houses and polished off our leftover food, today sits on the red list of the endangered species of The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Scientific studies have established that the house sparrows follow us everywhere and simply cannot live where we don't. Fossil evidence from a cave in Bethlehem dating back 4,00,000 years suggests that the house sparrow shared its space with early humans. The starch-friendly genes of the house sparrow tell us a story linked to our own evolution. Agriculture, the study said, triggered similar adaptation in three very different species – dogs, house sparrows and humans.
Being social birds and ultimate survivors - they have been found breeding at 14,000 ft in the Himalayas and nearly 2,000 ft down in a Yorkshire coal mine - sparrows are good indicators of the state of the environment. "The air which a sparrow breathes is the same as the one we breathe. Decline of common species is the first warning signal for us that we are doing something wrong with the environment. Our lack of interest and awareness towards the concern for the lifestyle of all beings around us made impact externally as well as internally in which we are connected.
