GOLAGHAT: Sparrows are disappearing from many parts of the country, especially in Assam, where electro-magnetic radiation from communication towers, use of leaded petrol in vehicles and overuse of chemicals and pesticides in agriculture have been cited as primary causes of their disappearance by scientists. The chief scientist of the Regional Agriculture Research Centre in Lakhimpur, Dr Prabal Saikia, said, “It is a fact that sparrows are becoming scarce throughout Assam - both house and tree sparrows.” Saikia said his research on house sparrows conducted in Guwahati and Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Sonitpur, Jorhat and Tinsukia districts revealed that they had been sighted in greater number in the Dikhowmukh area of Upper Assam, along the banks of the Brahmaputra and its tributaries in Dikhow and Mitong. “Comparatively less pollution than the other parts of the area, large number of thatched huts and general awareness about environment protection are responsible for the concentration of sparrows at Dikhowmukh,” Saikia pointed out. Environmental activist Hiren Dutta of conservation organization “Nature’s Beckon”, while conducting a survey in greater Dikhowmukh found that a group of sparrows had set up a colony in the verandah of a house at Krisnasiga village. (PTI)