What ails the sparrow?

In the recent years, the common house sparrow, for unfortunate reasons, has become a flagship case for the bird conservation in India. The sparrows populations have declined in such alarming levels that most lay people are now acknowledging it. The once ubiquitous bird is now scarcely seen. The most alarming part about it is that nobody is really able to conclusively say why they are disappearing at such an alarming rate.

well, several reasons are being thrown about. Here are a few:

1. Use of pesticides in house compounds,
2. Lack of nesting sites due to the increasing number of concrete structures in urban areas
3. Absence of grains
4. Unavailability of water in summer months
5. Anecdotal evidence also points to the reduction of sparrow population close to
1. Mobile towers
2. Mast lamps 
6. Over-Hunting by humans who use it for mean and there is also a unfounded belief that the sparrow meat can increases the virility of men.

This blog post was written with the help of these article from "The Hindu" news paper articles whose links are given below

• Where are the sparrows?
• Where have all the sparrows gone?
• Sparrow meat, a delicacy in Karur bars