In Chennai, population of house sparrows have become more now
Posted on: 21/Dec/2018 11:17:06 AM
This news would bring huge happiness on the faces of many sparrow lovers and the residents of Chennai now. A four month study was conducted by Madras Naturalist Society or MNS between April and July and it is revealed that there is an increase in the house sparrows in few newly developed areas of Chennai. These house sparrows (Passer domesticus) have vanished from certain parts of Chennai is known.
The house sparrows were spotted at MRTS stations like Chintadripet, Kotturpuram, Kasturba Nagar, Indira Nagar, Taramani, Velachery, Vettuvankeni, Neelankarai, Shastri Nagar in Adyar, Porur, Madipakkam etc. This was confirmed by Mr. K. V. Sudhakar, MNS president. He spoke about how the MRTS stations were safe for the sparrows and how these sparrows could build their nests due to enough space available in these stations.
Physical verification by the MNS members was carried out after creating a sparrow map for the city of Chennai. This was done after the sightings of sparrows were reported by the public across the Chennai city. It must not be forgotten that 6 years back MNS held a rapid assessment of sparrows in Chennai city. The sparrows were found in places such as Triplicane, Tiruvottiyur, Medavakkam, Adyar, Santhome, Nungambakkam, R.A Puram, Choolaimedu, Villivakkam, Besant Nagar, Pudupet and Chitlapakkam.
The sparrows have vanished from certain areas like Nungambakkam, Saidapet, West Tambaram, Villivakkam, Teynampet, Padi and Ambattur. This has been as per the present observation.
According to Mr. Sudhakar, the distribution of birds usually depends on the availability of their feed. He spoke about how few decades ago the sparrows used to feed on the grains spilled from the shops. He explained the reason for the low sparrow population and said there is no spillage of grains now a day’s as the grains are packed well. He finally threw light on the pesticides that killed the insects and how this had deprived the sparrows of their feed.
