Sparrow – the little delight

“It sat on the branch of the mango tree of our courtyard every morning. Sitting peacefully and comfortably, grasping the twig firmly and shimmering under the shining sun, it would gaze here and there until we would come and frighten it and it would jump from one place to another and then flapped its rounded wings and away it flew in the deep blue sky. And we would stare it until the stout and innocent creature was out of sight,” said my father when we were having a good evening talk. He told me that once these sparrows were very common in our earlier locality, but now they are almost nowhere to be seen, all we are left with is pigeons nowadays.

Yesterday, when I was in my balcony  hearing the pitter patter sound of the rain drops and sipping my hot coffee, all of a sudden I heard some noise and looked up to find myself staring at a sparrow! Its cone-shaped beak along with its brown wings and patches of a faded white shade were drenched. It glanced at me and the exceedingly wary bird flew away in the gray clouds. I was wondering why the sparrow population was declining so rapidly.

Of course there are numerous reasons for this. Their habitat is disappearing because of deforestation as trees are the natural nesting places of sparrows. Lack of the essential emotional connect with human beings have pushed these birds on the edge of extinction. In fact, the house sparrow has been listed in the IUCN (International Union for Conservation for Nature) Red list. World Sparrow Day is observed in more than 50 countries all over the world on 20 March every year to save the common house sparrow from extinction. Not only in India, sparrows are disappearing all over the world! The number of sparrows in rural England has nearly halved while in towns and cities, the count has been declined by 60%.

Actually, we are being selfish and greedy. If we look more precisely, we’ll come across the fact that actually we have everything we NEED, but we crave for the things that we WANT. We should thank Mother Nature for all the things she has given us and be grateful to her. Fiddling with nature will do us no good. Technology and mindless urbanization cannot and will never be able to withstand the immense powers of nature. We can save these little delights, like sparrows, from extinction, if we become more selfless like our Mother Nature and spend some time with her. Life is more meaningful, interesting and healthy with these creatures than without them. 

#Let'sSaveTheSparrows

By Srishti