SORRY TALE OF THE HOUSE SPARROW
SORRY TALE OF THE HOUSE SPARROW (A miniature painting of a House Sparrow on a rock by me) ‘The fall of a Sparrow’, was a title that legend Salim Ali rightfully gave to one of his well acclaimed works on the birds and unsurprisingly his prophecy turned out to be a phenomenon all over. The sparrow lost its count worldwide, 62% fall in numbers in just 25 years. Contrary to the popular belief, it is not just the urbanization that is the root cause of alarming fall in the numbers of the sparrow, once most common bird in urban areas. The innovative modern architecture and speedy construction techniques, wherein the excessive use of materials such as glass and aluminum panes is also a major reason for its disappearing act. The traditional carved wood and concrete ‘jali’, which for a long time have been ideal nesting sites for the sparrow, gave way to such innovative construction materials which deprived the sparrow of an adequate nesting site. Evidently we find trees and native plants