700 bird boxes distributed in Guwahati

World Sparrow Day observed

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, March 20: With the chirping sparrow getting lost between skyscrapers and roofless dwellers in Guwahati and other metropolitan cities in the county, animal lovers are doing their best to provide the bare minimum nesting shelter for this little mite.

One such effort was seen in Guwahati on the occasion of World Sparrow Day on Tuesday. Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA), along with an NGO, Help Earth, organized an awareness programme at Shradhanjali Kan, Guwahati. In the programme, several bird boxes were installed in the park for sparrows and around 700 bird boxes were distributed free of cost to the public assembled there to spread awareness about house sparrows and their importance in the eco-system.

GMDA Chairman M Angamuthu attended the event and said the Northeast is a unique place and it has a rich biodiversity. He further said Guwahati being a big city also has a huge variety of flora and fau unlike other big cities in India.

Angamuthu also said in the event: “It’s the responsibility of the people of Guwahati to conserve, preserve, further develop the existing condition and reduce all the inconvenience, if there is any, to protect the unique urban bio-diversity of Guwahati city.”

Chief functiory of Help Earth, an NGO, Jayaditya Purkaystha said that his NGO had prepared and distributed 700 bird boxes on this World Sparrow Day to raise awareness amongst people. He said: “If we fail to take the extra measure to save this creature, house sparrows will also extinct like other species and the next generation will be deprived of the memories which we share about house sparrows. Urban people of the city would be happy to know that that there are 220 different varieties of sparrows in Guwahati, and we have to protect them or else we will be in the same position as other capital cities like Delhi.”