World Sparrow Day: Varanasi NGO distributes nest boxes, millet to spread awareness

Today, people across the globe are celebrating World Sparrow Day while sharing pictures and status on social media. Whereas, in Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi, a city-based Vyagra Foundation has made a meaningful effort to protect common house sparrows by distributing nest boxes and millet to people. Vyagra Foundation President, Navneet Kumar Pandey said that his NGO has decided to work for sparrow conservation because the common house sparrows have started vanishing from the surroundings. 

He expressed, "The main aim of our foundation is to work for sparrow conservation. One day I was sitting on the terrace of my home and realised that sparrows have started vanishing from our surroundings. When I was small I used to see my parents feeding so many sparrows that used to sit at the veranda of our home. At that moment I thought about what can be done to bring them back and conserve them. Then with a few more men, I started distributing birdhouses, millet, water pots to people in our neighbourhood and now there are so many sparrows in our vicinity"

World Sparrow Day: Vyagra Foundation distributes nests in Varanasi 

Vyagra Foundation not only distributed the nests in Varanasi, but people from Prayagraj, Gorakhpur, Lucknow and several other places have collected birdhouses. Over 1,000 birdhouses were distributed by the foundation across the country. Anyone who swears to feed and care for the sparrows is given two clay pots, one kilogram of bird food (Bajra), and two nests. Kumar noted, "Today you will find thousands of nests distributed by Vyagra Foundation in several houses of Varanasi. Not only Varanasi, people from Prayagraj, Gorakhpur, Lucknow and many other cities come to collect birdhouses and other material to feed these sparrows, from us. In fact, when sparrows occupy these birdhouses, people shoot a video of them and post them on social media. This makes me feel happy and proud."

Member of National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) and Course Co-ordinator of Environmental science at Banaras Hindu University, Dr BD Tripathi, explained, "I remember when we were young, we had more Kuccha houses and sparrows used to make nests in these houses and unlike today, there used to be many sparrows around us. That was an indicator that at that time, the air, water and soil were clean. Just like there were Dolphins in the Ganga river, similarly, the sparrows used to inhabit Kucha houses. Now there are pucca houses and no space is left for these birds to make nests. Moreover, due to pollution, the fertility of these birds has reduced drastically as a result of which their population has reduced a lot. Therefore, today there is a need for sparrow conservation"

History of World Sparrow Day

World Sparrow Day is celebrated on March 20 every year. It is celebrated to increase awareness for the protection of 'Gauraya' among people. In the last few years, Sparrow numbers have decreased significantly due to increased pollution and other environmental crisis. World Sparrow Day is an initiative taken by the Nature Forever Society of India as well as by the Echoess Action Foundation of France. The society was started by the famous environmentalist Mohammad Dilawar. He was also titled in Time magazine's "Heroes of the Environment" in 2008. World Sparrow Day was first observed on March 20 in 2010.

(with inputs from ANI)