Dr. MB Krishna, a city-based ecologist, and ornithologist said that due to the building of houses and roads, all the sparrows have left Bengaluru.
One of my childhood memories is of walking on a mud trail along the perimeter of a shimmery lake to reach the stud farm where my grandfather was the resident vet. It was near Yelahanka on the outskirts of Bengaluru and all around the large lake grew tall grass, bulrushes, and wild greenery. There were so many sparrows flitting around but I would keep my eyes peeled for the blue kingfishers. Now, the lake doesn’t exist and its lakebed has apartment buildings instead of water. There are no sparrows, a sight which was taken for granted just a few decades back.
As yet another World Sparrow Day arrives, it’s no exaggeration to say that the little house sparrow aka English sparrow have practically left the city. “Every time people ask me what they can do to bring back the sparrows,” says Dr MB Krishna, a city-based ecologist and ornithologi...