Aditi Roy/This book ‘I Love Sparrow’ has covered each and every dimension of the sparrows, which is a small bird having unique appearance holding significant place in the life of people. This book consists of thirty-two sub-topics or chapters covering sparrow holistically. First of its kind, this book put forwards all the efforts a man can put to unravel all the secrets of this bird.
The very thing dealt in this book is about the kind of food that sparrows consume, i.e., rice, paddy etc., the kind of houses it lives in, which is made of wood, coconut shell, man-made houses. Its importance in human’s life by becoming a saviour of the crops by feeding on insects and pests and hence, becoming a farmer’s friend, showcases its special bond with the humans since ancient times. Its special relation with cow dung has also been mentioned in this book, which provides undigested food to these sparrows.
This book clarifies that sparrows as an organism has its life cycle which completes in three to five years, laying around two to five eggs in a single time, indulging in a specific time between November to May from mating to laying eggs. But despite being so friendly it has been in threat mostly by the humans caused by using pesticides in farmland, such as DDT and Boric Acid etc., consuming it as food, which has often been reported by the news reporter. Next comes the Climate Change which has led not only to a decline in the birth rate of chicks but has also led to the shifting of breeding season back and forth and in severe case migration of these birds to regions of a little more favourable climatic conditions.
Considering its role in bringing ecological balance, it has somehow proved its significance in the ecological set up, which has enthused and awakened about its importance and doing what ever possible to safeguard it, this book aware everyone about several environmentalist and sparrow conservationist such as ‘Hamari Gauraiya’ and ‘Environment Warrior’, who have come together to safeguard these little birds, by providing food, installing artificial nests, creating sparrow zone to protect already present sparrows and organising campaigns to protract and promote or spread awareness about this human dependent bird. In response to this the central government has included seven sparrows in schedule -II by notifying the Wild Life (Protection) Act.
To understand any living organism, its anatomy is needed to be learned properly, so that the anatomy has been holistically presented in the book.
This book further consists of several media reports about how sparrows are getting vanished from most of the houses, where it was found earlier. News about its consumption as a food for humans has also been published in news. Moreover, a tremendous choler of the environmentalist and sparrow conservationist about the misleading news of mobile towers causing death of the sparrows, was also noticed by the people.
This book contains emotional encounter of the hunter Salim Ali with the yellow-throated sparrows, while he was hunting just for the sake of enjoyment, which changed his life from a simple man to a nationally eminent environmentalist, and paved the way for becoming a bird saviour. Therefore, there is special chapter on yellow-throated sparrows, about where they are found, how its getting protection and types of habitat etc.
In addition to this, the book includes the far reach of this bird from becoming part of the literature through story, poems, reflecting its emotions through films to adding value to the stamps to becoming mascot in Khelo India Para Games 2023. Stories of famous writer Mhadevi Verma’s ‘Gauraiya’ ‘Mitrabheda’, the first book of the Panchatantra and Premchand’s ‘Naadan Dost’, all have mentioned sparrows in their work.
This book also includes poems of Harivansh Rai Bachchan ‘Chidiya Aur Churungum’, and Mukti Shahdeo’s poem ‘Aangan Ki Gauraiya’, all of them have given sparrows centre stage. The songs such as ‘Ka Khau Ka Piu Ka Le Ke Pardes Jaaoon’ a folk song sung by Chandan Tiwari, is a wonderful song showing how sparrow begs different creatures to get the pulses stuck in its nest is also a part of this book.
Further, the book mentions names of films such as ‘Jai Bhim’, ‘Gamanam’, ‘Soorarai Pottru aka Udaan’, ‘Bimbisara’, ‘Meka ‘, 2.0 and ‘Peter rabbit’, which are some of the most popular films about sparrows and in addition to this, the real story of a cricket museum showing respect to a sparrow has also been a part of this book. Therefore, its significance cannot be just side looked or ignored and hence, this book incorporates or put forward an action plan to protect these little birds.
Title: I Love Sparrow
Author: Sanjay Kumar
Genre: Wildlife Conservation
Publication: New world publication, New Delhi
Price:399
Editon:2025
Pages: 192