City's architects, apartments turning sparrow-friendly

Fed up with the pigeon menace, apartment dwellers are now installing nest boxes in parking lots and windows to create space for sparrows to roost.

Architects and designers are working on building designs keeping sparrows in mind. While many are doing this as an environmental concern, some are doing it to fulfil  customers' needs.

Even as there is no survey, it is visibly evident that the sparrow population is dwindling and the pigeon menace is increasing in the city. The culture of individual homes making way for apartment complexes has left hardly any space for the tiny birds.

"We are working with apartment dwellers to keep nest boxes in parking lots, apart from balconies and windows. Parking spaces are used only during mornings and evenings. These spaces are undisturbed and are ideal to keep nest boxes," Mohammad Dilawar, popularly known as the Sparrow Man of India, told DH.

Mekal Karekar, architect and partner at Karekar and Associates Architect and Engineers, said architects were designing landscapes in such a way that there was space for sparrows.  

Architects are creating elevations and crevices suitable for sparrows, as pigeons need flat surfaces.  Karekar said people were becoming conscious and were demanding features even in constructed structures.  

Dilawar, also the founder of Nature Forever Society, said conservationists and ornithologists were collectively writing to the government demanding a ban on kabutarkhanas (pigeon feeding and breeding centres).

"There is a mafia working on pigeons. But people fail to realise this. The disappearance of sparrows is a serious reminder that something is wrong with our urban environment. Sparrows are ambassadors for urban biodiversity and an important bioindicator of the health of the urban environment," he said.

DH News Service

World Sparrow Day

It is observed on March 20 every year to increase awareness on the dwindling population of sparrows and revive them. It was started in 2008 by the Nature Forever Society as an international initiative in partnership with Eco-Sys Action Foundation, France, and many national and international organisations.

The theme of this year is 'I Love (Heart Symbol) Sparrows'.  

Free nest boxes

Free 210 feeders and 65 nest boxes will be distributed at the Lalbagh and the Cubbon Park on Tuesday. They will also be distributed on Sunday at the Bannerghatta Biological Park. The Raj Bhavan will also observe the day by keeping nest boxes.