Meet the sparrow man

Cut to the expanse of Connaught Place. Where circles meld into circles,with alleys — some deserted,others brimming over — slashing though them. Here,the Central Park is like a feeble oasis in a renewed concrete desert. No sparrows though. Crows,mynahs,rock pigeons,yes; but no sparrows.

Yet,Mohammad Dilawar is a happy man. The common sparrow — a bit elusive these days — has been knighted the Delhi’s state bird,thanks to his efforts.

The tiny bird has grown in stature to become a symbol of urban ecology and Mohammad Dilawar is the face of the sparrow campaign,the “sparrow man”.

Oan Dilawar,his younger brother,is the backbone of the campaign. Oan runs the websites,collects feedback,listens to complaints and also counsels and cautions.

The fight is far from over,says Dilawar,who founded the Nature Forever Society,seven years ago in Nashik.

“The sparrow will be saved. Healthy numbers of the bird has been recorded in Delhi. But look at the shrinking habitats,scanty food sources and urban gardening practices. Is it any wonder the sparrows are disappearing? They once used to be everywhere,” he says.

The problem,he reckons,lies in our nature-deficit syndrome — What you don’t see,you don’t miss.

“In my childhood,chidiya was the first encounter we had with birds and animals. They were part of our folklore and culture. Many believed that the departed souls came back as birds and,hence,they were well-fed. Rangolis were made with rice powder,so that birds could nibble at it. Today,it’s been replaced by chalk powder and,worse,plastic stickers,” says Dilawar.

So why is the survival of the sparrow so important? Some species survive,some don’t. “Sparrows evolved over the last 10,000 years alongside humans. They are an early-warning system that any ecology needs,” he says.

“We fail to see how much the landscape has changed. Sparrows and other birds can’t nest because of our straight,flat architecture. Birds need cavities,nooks and corners to nest.”

Six months ago,Dilawar set up the common bird monitoring system (CBMS) in India to build baseline data. The CBMS is an online platform to record observations on the 18 common species of birds in the country. “It will be years,perhaps even decades,before confident analyses emerge from the data.”

So far,CBMS has seen 1,500 registrations — a number insufficient enough to cause the conservationist some serious displeasure.

“People need to only spend 15 minutes a day to observe and document their surroundings. This data is invaluable,” Dilawar points out.

Nature Forever Society has a number of other activities lined up as well — Sparrow Awards,World Sparrow Day,ban-the-catapult and help birds in summer campaigns.

“While the tiger courts the attention of the Parliament,the sparrow looks to the common man. My idea of conservation doesn’t reside in lobbies and tourism. I want people to miss the sparrow,to have a silly,but emotional,affair with the sparrow. And for me,the sparrow now symbolises all the other common birds that need saving.”