Giving wings to the urban sparrow population

One of the most commonly found birds in populated areas was becoming not so common suddenly. It was this observation that prompted the idea of Singing Sparrows in his mind. Later, with the help of three of his friends — Pavithra, Ansari and Sai Ram — he transformed the idea into a community initiative. 

“Pigeons and sparrows are two of the most commonly found birds in our cities. They are one of the very few bird species that are very close to humans. But, recently, because of the decreasing amount of greenery and increasing number of concrete structures in the cities, the sparrow population has been on a steady and steep decline. One of the major reasons for this is that their mating habits have been affected by the change in topography. 

We wanted to do something to reverse this and that is how the idea for Singing Sparrows came about,” says Sai Ram, Creative Artist Manager of Singing Sparrows. Singing Sparrows builds and gifts sparrow nests to anyone who wishes to provide shelter for the bird. 

“Sparrows are essential indicators of our environment’s health and balance. We are trying to build awareness among the public by giving away free sparrow nests to anybody who is interested. The nests are built with plywood and have a small sized entry hole in the front through which only sparrows can go in. This is so that the birds won’t be disturbed through their mating phase and the eggs will be safe from bigger birds. 

There is also a small opening for sunlight and air to enter at the back of the nest. We don’t charge individual orders. If it is a mass order, like return gifts for weddings and parties, then we charge the clients the material cost for the wood and bear the other costs, like trans portation, ourselves,” he adds. Celebrities like Pia Bajpai and Sharan Kumar have supported the initiative by sharing videos on social media. 

All four of them are juggling the initiative along with their careers at this point. Naveen is a manager with a leading MNC, Ansari is a businessman and an interior designer and Sai Ram and Pavithra Kumari are media professionals. 

“Though the concept was formed about eight months ago, we started giving away nests only three months ago. We have already distributed 600 nests so far and the response we are getting from the public is very positive. Right now, we are focussing only on Tamil Nadu. 

We haven’t even registered as an NGO yet. Once we are done with that, we want to expand to more places and, also, organise awareness campaigns in schools and colleges. We hope to be able to do that in another couple of months,” he explains.