Citizen Sparrow, an initiative of the Bombay Natural History Society and the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, invites citizens to participate in finding out why sparrows are disappearing. Log in to save the sparrow
On March 19, which has since 2011 been observed as World Sparrow Day, we carried a special photo-feature contributed by a Yahoo! reader on how Bangaloreans have made space for sparrows in their homes and hearts. Why a special day to celebrate a common bird, some people wondered. The answer lies in the question itself.
Most city-dwellers in India have doubtless noticed that sparrows are not as common as they used to be. There are many reasons for that.In the absence of holistic research there's no shortage of guesswork and conspiracy theories to explain what has happened to sparrows. Apart from scattered efforts, little has been done to determine why sparrows are disappearing, or if they are disappearing at all.
Until now.
Launched this week, Citizen Sparrow is a project that calls ordinary citizens like you and me to contribute our local knowledge of the presence and absence of sparrows in our local neighborhoods. Spearheaded by the Bombay Natural History Society together with the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India and partnered by the Mysore-based Nature Conservation Foundationand the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Citizen Sparrow weaves in a consortium of NGOs, conservationists and researchers who have lent their support to the project.How to participate
Visit the Citizen Sparrow website, register yourself and start reporting the presence or absence of sparrows in your locality using the online forms provided. You can enter your location either by manually inputting the geographical coordinates of your neighborhood or selecting it from a map. The information you submit is fed into a national database. You can report as many records as you like from as many locations as possible -- from common areas like your school or college campus, local bus stand, railway station and airport to agricultural fields and home gardens. Don't waste time, because the project ends on May 31.
And it's not all dry data. Citizen Sparrow also lets you share interesting stories about sparrows ' there's a space for your nostalgic memories or funny anecdotes involving these little birds. Individuals, organizations and entire offices are welcome to participate. All contributors are listed on the Citizen Sparrow page.
So go ahead and chi(r)p in to secure the future of our friendly neighborhood sparrow. All Citizen Sparrow demands is a few minutes of your time for an activity that is heartwarming, ennobling and purposeful. And it might help bring the cheerful chirping of sparrows back into our lives.
You could say it's a bit like citizen journalism, minus the sleaze!
Log on to https://www.citizensparrow.in
Anupamaa
