Mumbai: In order to help increase the population of house sparrows, who are termed to be fast disappearing from Mumbai and Maharashtra at large, the Maharashtra Forest Department (MFD) is coming up with an assisted breeding programme under the forest minister’s pet project. The pilot study has been concluded for the project. This breeding program will be completed by 2018 in Thane, Alibaug and Pune with an expenditure of Rs 24 lakh. The department, with the help of Sanjay Deshmukh a Pune-based builder who own a complex suitable for sparrow breeding, will tie-up with the builders in Thane and Alibaug areas to have structures suitable for the sparrows to breed in their societies.
Considering the decline in the number of house sparrows due to reasons like urbanisation and unavailability of appropriate nesting sites, the MFD had launched a pilot project (2014-16) to address the problem and save sparrows from extinction. The pilot project, House Sparrow Breeding and Conservation Project, was launched in Pune after which the department aims to initiate the project from April this year. The two-year long project aims to build a total of two thousand nests for the birds, of which thousand of them will be built by the end of this year.
During the launch of the project by forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar, artificial nests were deployed at eight places in and around Pune in 2014-16. The initial results were noted to have an occupancy rate of more than 90 percent. This proved that nest sites are rare and, if offered, they are immediately occupied by the house sparrows. According to the proposal submitted to the department, the Nest Box manufacturing and fixing of the nest will cost Rs 2,50,000. The department will hire research assistants throughout the project in order to keep a note on the project’s development.
Sunil Limaye, chief conservator of forest (CCF) of Thane Forest Department and ex-CCF of Pune Wildlife said, “Project objectives include important ornithological and ecological aspects to better understand the problems leading to house sparrow decline and offer breeding sites. Ela Foundation has the necessary ornithological expertise to carry out this important project and hence will be helping the department with the project. Sparrows are declared to be fast depleting species and there is an urgent need to conserve them.”
