‘Wings Foundation’ trying to provide wings to sparrows
‘Wings Foundation’ trying to provide wings to sparrows
B.D.Kasniyal
Pithoragarh, March 21
On the occasion of ‘World Sparrow Day’ on March 20, several programmes directed towards protection of sparrow were organised in the district by people and organisations working towards preservation of depleting wildlife.
“Our teams, visited several government schools around the town and awakened the students and teachers towards protecting the Sparrow as this fauna specie is rapidly disappearing from our courtyard,”said Jagdish Bhatt, founder of ‘Wings Foundation’, a NGO working towards preservation of depleting fauna species including species of butterflies.
Citing the example of China, where lakhs of sparrows were killed under great sparrow campaign in 1958-60, mistakenly blaming them as crop destroyers, resulted into ecological imbalance followed by severe crops failure and famine thereafter, Jagdish Bhatt said that if sparrows are not protected today, it could lead to ecological imbalance around us as well.” The world has learn from Chinese experiment that sparrow is a significant contributor in balancing our ecology,” said the ‘Wings Foundation’ founder who is working towards preservation of Sparrows from last 8 years.
“We have also distributed over 20 nests of house sparrows in Rai region of town and appealed the residents to hang these near their house, for, the Sparrow could get shelter in these nests,” said Jagdish Bhatt
The number of house sparrows is decreasing rapidly as the people have left villages and cultivation to settle in nearby towns.” The sparrows, found of using small holes to settle in, are facing not only lack of shelters after the villagers left their houses in their villages, but are also being deprived of food that they used to get from cultivated fields and basking grains on roof tops in rural areas,” said Bhatt.
Pithoragarh District Forest Officer (DFO) Ashutosh Singh, said on the occasion that the declining number of sparrows, is not only indication of imbalance of bio diversity but also indicates towards disturbances of traditional atmosphere around us.” If not protected today, the future general will see sparrow only in text books,” said the Pithoragarh DFO.
