Sparrows Indicate Environmental Well-Being, Their Absence Worrying: Experts Bangalore: They may be small but their presence makes a big impact. Sparrows are an indicator of the environmental health of an area, say experts. And their disappearance can be linked to increase in infectious diseases and ecological changes, they warn. These chirpy little birds have been edged out of Bangalore homes, thanks to changes in architecture and agriculture. But the city needs them. “Sensitive to environmental changes, sparrows are an important bio-indicator for a healthy urban ecosystem and reflect its decline today,’’ says SC Joshi, director of Institute of Wood Science and Technology, Malleswaram. Found near human habitats, they serve as an important prey for the bigger birds. As chicks, house sparrows eat insects from gardens. This helps in less usage of pesticides. They make nests using household garbage-strings, papers, cotton piece etc. “They are controller of insects in the eco-system, which in turn helps save vast farmland stretches. With even villagers cutting down on use of natural products to build homes, sparrows are disappearing from all landscapes,” said sparrow crusader Mohammed Esmail Dilawar, president of Nature Forever Society, Nashik. Sparrows were included by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in its Red Data List of threatened species in 2002, alongside snow leopards, tigers and red pandas. “We need sparrows for our future generation to at least see them,” said ornithologist MB Krishna. saswati.mukherjee@timesgroup.com TINY TRIVIA Our hearts beat 72 times a minute, that of a sparrow beats 460 times India is home to four different species of sparrow — house sparrow, yellowthroated sparrow, Spanish and Eurasian tree sparrow Sparrows are doting parents. They love building quaint untidy nests in crevices of buildings and rotting tree trunks NEST AT YOUR HOME Place the nest in a shade — under a tree, below a balcony or in a verandah. Hang the nest at a higher altitude. Place a bowl of water in the ground along with some millets. Make sure you change the water regularly and provide constant supply of millets near the nest.