Hyderabad Neighbourhood Brings Back 20,000 Sparrows Almost Lost to the City—Bird Expert Reveals How |
For generations, mornings across India began with a familiar chirping of house sparrows. Their presence was so ordinary that it rarely got any attention.
Today, their absence does.
A bird that lived with us
The house sparrow has never been a distant, forest-dwelling species. It evolved alongside human settlements, nesting in crevices of homes, feeding on grains, and thriving in close proximity to people. Its presence has long been considered a marker of environmental health.
This is why its decline has unsettled conservationists. Recent surveys in Thiruvananthapuram, for instance, have pointed to a sharp drop in sparrow numbers. Similar patterns have been observed in multiple urban pockets across India.
According to bird researcher Sujan Chatterjee, the decline is not uniform. Sparrows continue to exist in many non-urban and semi-urban areas. The real crisis, he explains, is concentrated in cities.
“Modern architecture plays a decisive role here. Older homes, with their ventilators, tiled roofs, and small gaps, offered natural nesting spaces. Today’s glass-and-concrete structures are sealed, smooth, and inhospitable for the sparrow”, he tells The Better India.
Older homes, he notes, were unintentionally designed to accommodate bird life.
Chatterjee, who serves as the founder of West Bengal's Birdwatcher’s Society and a reviewer for eBird India—a global ornithological database managed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology—has dedicated years to studying regional shifts in bird populations.
From his vantage point, the crisis is real, but it is misunderstood.
“Sparrow populations haven’t collapsed everywhere. The sharper decline is largely visible in urban pockets.” According to Chatterjee, the........