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The common Indian house sparrow Passer domesticus indicus that was once an integral part of our life is on the verge of extinction. From many parts of India it has already vanished. To mark its importance be felt by local masses 20 March is now also The World Sparrow day and it was crowned the state bird of Delhi in 2012. Few Indian cities however still have them but their disappearance is a matter of global concern. This research work was administered to unveil various common causes of Sparrow volatility. Major findings that were observed were- lack of food/tree cover/insects/nesting sites; pollution, predation use of pesticides were other causes that were identified.

The objective of this paper is to study the causes of house sparrow extinction identified from a few rural regions of Western Uttar Pradesh.

General information- House sparrow belongs to the family Passeridae and is considered as a closed relative to the weaver finch family. Sparrows are comparatively lazy birds that do not undertake much flight for food-hunt. It is only 1-2 kilometers around their own arena. These birds usually live in houses made of thatched roof and bungalows. They are also found in concrete houses but they are always found in and around human habitation; be it houses in cities, or be it farm; and farmland in rural areas. This one species of bird is kind of dependent on human population and cannot survive if the human element is missing from their life cycle (Dandapat et al., 2010).

Once very commonly found house sparrow with whom many of our past generations have shared special bond of childhood friendship is soon getting vanished. Many of modern day toddlers recognize house sparrow not in their naturals surrounding but in picture charts and digital wallpapers only; because sparrow has become restricted to a two dimension vision. House sparrow has been added to the Red List of Royal Society for Protection of Birds (UK) which is indicative that this bird species is experiencing a steep decline and is a matter of global Restoration concern.

The common breeding months of house sparrow comprise March to August. It is the male bird that decides the nesting site and it returns to that, every successive year. High mortality rate is found during the first year of life. The male and female sparrow birds have marked differences and observation with a little care can easily identify whether the sparrow is male or female (Table 1).

Male sparrow	Female  sparrow
Crown, cheek, and under parts are grey in colour while throat is black	None of grey crown and black color on head and throat.
The colour black is also visible in upper breast and between bill and eyes.	Upper part of female is characterized with brown streaks.
It's legs are brown
In summer month bill is blue black and color changes during winter season when bill become yellowish brown and its blue mage is seen to have pale edgings in winter.

Table 1- Differences between male and female sparrow

Juvenile – Its color is deep brown, beak is dull yellow, they are ubiquitous in nature. 

Sound- They make chirping sound

Food- mainly seeds, but also consume insects specifically during the breeding season (Lowther and Cink 1992). The seeds they eat comprise mainly from waste, grain, weeds livestock feed, agriculture spillover etc.

Behavior-  Sparrow comprise of gregarious behavior seen all the year round. They prefer living in groups and feeding on grains, insects, kitchen left over, and flower buds.

Usual call comprise of incessant and short chirp. Sometimes there is noticed a double call note called Phillip. Older birds can also seen uttering long Churr. Minimum three broods get reared in a season.

Social organization - The birds are usually found in pairs or small groups like a family when the breeding season is going on. In otherwise normal conditions they can be spotted in huge flocks that sometimes comprise hundreds of birds. These birds are enormously vocal. The male sparrow because of being territorial and aggressive is often seen to be displaying a protective behavior at the nesting site while breeding season is going.

Migration - House is sparrow during summer months which comprise from March to October. In winters are seen to migrate to higher elevations of Himalaya and Baluchistan region. 

Mating pattern - despite of exhibiting multiple broods it is usually only two that last long otherwise they are monogamous and exhibit long term pair bonds. 

Breeding behavior begins after male sparrow ends up with selection of nest site. The male stays at the nest advertising and displaying it with sharp chirrup. And the frequency is one call after every one to two second. Male is also seen to exhibit raising of tail and wing shivering. In case a female sparrow approaches the nest site male becomes aggravated, he starts jumping in stiff posture with head drooped and held high and Black feathers at throat get erected. Male frequently goes inside the nest and comes out quickly but female is barred from entering the nest sometimes for up to 3 days. While nest is being built male allows the female to touch the raw material used in making the nest. The bill touching can also be found before copulation (Dandapat et al., 2010). 

Egg lay - At one time houses sparrow lay 5-6 eggs. They exhibit incubation for a period of 10 to 12 days. As the sparrows mature the reproductive success enhances this is because of change in timing when older birds start breeding early in the breeding season (Hatch and Westmeath 2007). 

Nest structure - Nest comprise of twigs bits of paper feather and dried vegetation. It entirely  depends on the material readily  available. For e.g. in coastal regions fishing net threads, polythenes scattered at beaches by tourists/locals etc (Pandian, 2023) may also constitute as raw material. The selection of nest site/ nest set-up is usually done by males but he may also allow the female to participate. Nesting time is March to April. 

This interview based study is based on both Primary and secondary interviews. The primary ones were conducted by the researcher itself. The secondary ones were collected from authentic online sources. Various interviews were thoroughly studied to find the actual modern causes of house sparrow decline and have been summarized as follows-

Despite of all these geographical advantages there have been reports of rapid decline of commonly found birds like vultures and even our very own domestic house sparrow. Numerous environmentalists and scientists state that in case certain pesticides are not extirpated from the ecosystem and the food chain many birds including the above two stated might soon get extinct and perished forever. According to some recent reports about 12 bird species of India have been listed as critically endangered and on verge of extinction.

The researcher belongs to a native village in UP. The entire childhood was spent in close vicinity of sparrows particularly the school vacations when feeding the sparrow flock and arranging vessels containing water during the dry summer months was one of the favorite pastime and hobby of the researcher. Surprisingly as he grew up he noticed and realized that the birds that used to sing the morning song and wake him up from his sleep are no longer to be heard either in the house premises or in the nearby gardens. Although the researcher left his village for further studies but the childhood memories always kept him haunted and thoughtful. It h was one of the prime reasons to take up this area as a research topic to conduct present research paper. The researcher is a person very ground to earth and keeps on frequently visiting the native village and nearby rural areas to stay connected to the roots.

During these visits the researcher with the key interest and finding out the reasons of decline of house sparrow started interviewing the general masses of his own village and nearby places. With an aim to see the awareness level of general people in this regard &  what is their view point about this severe ecological situation. Thus initially the researcher was conducting interview based research which he later documented, edited, revised, and thoroughly studied, to put the interview results in a systematic research paper which is this current paper.

House sparrow has been living in close association with human habitation since ages. It is omnivorous and highly adaptable in nature. This indicates that it can modify according to the local biome of any region. So, it should increase in abundance and number; but the reverse is happening. Which means its number has highly reduced from a wide number of localities in rest also it is less visible. This is a matter of grave concern and indicative that the global environment  has become highly toxic for this bird to survive. This was the main objective to undertake this research work. It is surprising to mention that sparrow related studies from Indian states are not in abundance. Only a few states like Rajasthan, Karnataka, Kerala etc. are vigilant enough where investigative research work on sparrows is going on. Few major such states have been mentioned in the discussion segment underneath.

The results from 25 interviews (6 direct, personal and individual; 19 from a common meeting done personally) conducted by the researcher himself have been described underneath.  In order to keep the individuality of the respondents protected the researcher has classified the interviewee as according to their occupation or designation (and not by their proper names) (Summarized results are presented in Table 2). And in this particular case whatever the name of the interview is, it hardly matters; what matters is their perception about the situation which is being briefed (also depicted in Fig. 1 & 2) below-

Respondent 1- Retired science teacher from the village school of Jote. A very learned man and also once a teacher of the researcher was interviewed. Science teacher had great knowledge of environment and associated theories and on the basis of field bean theory he replied that in earlier years Indian people use to purchase various vegetables and pods that contained seeds from the vegetable market. When these pods were broken from them used to hatch out larvae called Helicoverpa armigera that comprised one of the favorite sparrow foods. But in modern times because fresh seeds are available in packets which are well-packed these larvae have disappeared and hence the sparrow food has also declined in quantity leading to diminishing sparrows due to lack of food.

Respondent  2- A local gardener from village Vinshungarh replied that monoculture of grasses which is very popular in urban settings has also crept slowly into the big Zamidar houses and farm houses of rural people. Here a single variety of grass was well maintained. It was trimmed and watered while other native grasses and weeds were destroyed. This depletion of local flora and fauna on which the sparrows used to depend for food and nesting material is one of the primary cause of the clinic sparrow species.

Respondent  3- Another gardener from village Jasmai stated that decrease in growth of weeds has caused the sparrow population to decline. He also explained that now a days the old buildings (that usually were not well maintained) are disappearing and people are taking good care of their materialistic buildings which has diminished chances of holes and crevices. They used to be a favorite nesting site for sparrows. Also the old, spacious, and airy buildings being replaced by matchbox flats that stand one on top of other which has also reduced the rooftop area, yet another place where nests usually occurred in past times.

Respondent  4- An agricultural scientist from village Aam Nagla reported that there is intense competition for food with other species that include pigeon, crow, Maina.  Also owls and cats were found to capture sparrows in large number as their food which has become a serious cause of decline in sparrow population.

Respondent  5- A village school headmaster, a very learned man, and the grand old daddy of village Madhpuri reported that in previous century there were times when large number of rural students used to come to the government school for education. During their lunch hours each day they used to play with the sparrows and feed them with food from their lunch-boxes. They even were habituated to carry grains along with them to the school and scatter them in the playground. The site of play-field looked like school kids and sparrows along with other native birds all have assembled together for a meet. It was a really pleasant site to look at. But now the village school building has been updated in concrete and the muddy area is replaced by baked bricks. Which has reduced the mud area in which the sparrows love to bathe. Other factors like decline in number of students in government school, and students spending less time on playground, have depleted the school campus of food that was available for the sparrows and hence the sparrow population has become totally absent from the school premises.

Respondent  6- An environmental scientist that belonged to Bhogaon tehsil and was then working in a nearby city as a professor reported that now-a-days chemically treated seeds are used at the time of sowing which is very harmful for the sparrow population because they are mainly seed eaters. The treated grains that are available in the market in abundance in case of spillage and consumption by sparrow act like slow poison for the bird. He suggested that single sparrow each year can eat 1000 caterpillars. It seems a promising means of pest control then chemical pesticides with harmful effects on each trophic level of food chain.

Miscellaneous respondents from an urban setting- As researcher belongs to the city of Delhi so it became possible to wander through Delhi flats (Choudhary et al., 2020) and conduct personal interview of city dwellers. There was also included a group of senior citizens during a committee meeting; when this concern of sparrow decline was raised as an issue many replies flooded in as to be the possible causes. They are appropriately penned below-

i. Colossal air pollution native to Delhi city which is harming the human race so drastically then how can it spare a small bird like sparrow. 

ii. Gardens having pavement of concrete and no surrounding mud area for sparrows to play around (Pandian, 2023)

iii. Monoculture in gardening that promotes particular kind of grass family and excludes all wild plants and weeds which disturbs the natural environment of sparrow that it needs to flourish

iv.Thinning of tree cover and reduction in number of bushes in grass patches

v. The hedges which were used previously have been replaced by fences that are now made of iron.

vi. In areas where there is a prevalence of mosquito born diseases there is an automatic reduction in number of house sparrow (Mudur, 2008). 

vii. The mushrooming number of mobile-phone towers injure the sparrows and intermingled network of cable wires allows the electromagnetic waves to pass through. are very harmful for sparrows causing in them symptoms of infertility and irritation.

viii. Sparrows are social-birds which means they are gregarious and they move around in gang. If large numbers of sparrow vanish from a particular area then eventually rest all will too leave that region.

Fig. 1 Major Causes of Sparrow decline according to 25 interviewees (based on number of total respondents)

Fig. 2 Major Causes of Sparrow decline according to 25 interviewees (based on percentage of total respondents)

S. No.	Respondent specification	Region to which he/she belongs	Cause of sparrow decline
1.	Science teacher (former)	Jote	Non availability of insects and enough grains for feeding of sparrows
2.	local gardener	Vinshungarh	Promotion of monotonous grass type in personal/public gardens has caused loss of native flora and reduced foraging grounds for sparrow
3.	Gardener	Jasmai	Old, spacious, and airy buildings being replaced by matchbox flats
4.	Agricultural scientist	Aam Nagla	Competition for food, predation
5.	Village school headmaster	Madhpuri	School campus lacking mud area
6.	An environmental scientist	Bhogaon	Pesticide pollution

Table 2- Tabular representation of major findings from 6 personal interviews

Discussion

Situation of Sparrow in India

While going through a large number of information available on the web the researcher came across daring truth about sparrow which needs a special mention here so that the audience can actually understand how deep the problem has already become. Major Indian cities like Mumbai Hyderabad and Bangalore along with many other metro cities have reported a steep decline in sparrow population.

A survey was conducted by Indian council of agriculture research and it has stated that only in Andhra Pradesh the sparrow population has fallen down by 80%. Other states like Kerala, Gujarat, and Rajasthan have noticed a 20% dip. Reduction in sparrow population in coastal areas ranges from 70 to 80% (Fig.3)

Fig 3*- Recent decline rate in % of house sparrow in few Indian states

(*data source for self created pictorial representations is mentioned in the reference section)

Personal service by people who could not wait for government assistance found out the actual facts which are more alarming then the government figures. For example in Thiruvananthapuram volunteers reported that until the end of last century (i.e. 1998) sparrows verb visible in small flocks of 6 to 8 but they exhibited a total disappearance without leaving any trace just in 5 years to come which was 2003 (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4*- Decline in sparrow population of Thiruvananthapuram alone in a brief span of 5 years

What does sparrow decline actually indicate

It indicates a serious threat to overall environmental atmosphere present on earth. Large number of diversity in bird population can protect Homo sapiens from various infections like West Nile virus which is mosquito transferable disease. When large number of birds are available for mosquitoes to bite they will bite lesser number of human population which will bring down the chances of spread of infection. In Indian state of Maharashtra there is present a body called Bombay Natural History Society. It has prepared a proposal plan that has been sent to forest ministry of India for supporting and funding a nationwide program to search for sparrows. 

The aggravating decline of sparrow is indicator of high level air pollution in metro cities. Also as sparrows are grain eaters but now they are found not to feed much on modern day grains.  This devastated decline is indicative that there is serious problem in modern grains (of course that are being consumed by us, humans). It has raised a red flag on the grains that the society is consuming in current days. It somewhere means dangerously high concentration of pesticides then previous years.

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2. Chamberlain D.E., Toms M.P., Cleary Mc. Harg & Banks A.N. (2007). House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) habitat use in urbanized landscapes. Journal of Ornithology, 148, 453-462.

3. Choudhary S., Chauhan N.P.S., & Kalsi R. (2020). Finding Clues in Cities: Nest Site selection by House Sparrow Across a varied Habitat Matrix in Delhi, India. Current Science, 118(8), 1304-1309. Doi.10.18520/cs/118/i8/1304-1309.

4. Hatch, M. I., & Westneat, D. F. (2007). Age‐related patterns of reproductive success in house sparrows Passer domesticus. Journal of Avian Biology, 38(5), 603-611.

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