Sparrows nest in an earthen pot. Picture by Gopal Krishna Reddy

Berhampur, March 23: The old friends of the Ridleys have turned their attention to protect the sparrows.

The members of the Rushikulya Sea Turtle Protection Committee have now decided to intensify their campaign to save the sparrows across 30 villages in the district. The project was launched five years ago.

A group of youths of Purunabandh village here had set up the committee about 15 years ago with a mission to help protect the endangered Olive Ridley turtles.

“Earlier, sparrows, which are popularly known as “ghara-chatia”, used to be found everywhere. Now, they are on the verge of extinction. The organisation started the conservation effort for sparrows in 2008 at Purunabandh when only seven sparrows could be found at the village. The number has now risen to 268. This has encouraged us to further spread the campaign to 30 more villages in Ganjam,” said Rabindra Kumar Sahu, secretary of the committee.

The villages included Laxmipur, Mayurpada in Ganjam block, Nolianuagaon and Arjipalli in Chatrapur block and Gopalpur and Kamalapur in Rangeilunda block, he said.

“Our initiative has inspired others. The campaign has been introduced at Banai, Rourkela and Tensa mines in Sundergarh district, Athagad in Cuttack district, Angul in Dhenkanal district, Salia Sahi and Hotel Mayfair in Bhubaneswar and at several other places. The financial support of a private company and Rama Chandra Patnaik, an engineer from Chatrapur, has made it all possible,” he said. Encroachment of green space, use of insecticides and pesticides, increase in pollution levels and radiation from cell phone towers has affected the reproduction of these birds.

“The sparrows’ diet consists of grain, especially waste grain. But, they can adapt to any kind of diet if the grains are not available. They also eat weeds and insects, especially during the breeding season. These birds usually prefer thatched roofs or pucca houses that are associated with human habitation for their roosting and nesting. We purchased some earthen pots and placed them on the roof of a few houses to enable them set up their nest,” said Sahu.

“In 2008, we placed 20 wooden boxes and 10 earthen pots as nests of the tiny birds at Purunabandh. The number has now increased to 56. We have also added 10 feeder boxes which were built in Nasik. We are also planning to get some eco.-friendly drinking water container for them,” he said.