Once a common visitor to our homes, chirping noisily at the windows, sparrows are becoming hard to spot around. Shrinking urban nesting spaces, rampant construction and felling of trees have threatened their peaceful existence with humans.
Today is World Sparrow Day, a day dedicated to raise awareness about the house sparrow and threat to their population. It is observed on March 20 every year. This international initiative has been taken up by the Nature Forever Society of India in collaboration with the Eco-Sys Action Foundation (France) and various other national and international organisations across the world. The Nature Forever Society was started by Indian conservationist Mohammed Dilawar who started his work helping the house sparrow in Nashik. The first World Sparrow Day was celebrated in 2010 in different parts of the world. The idea was to earmark a day for the house sparrow and convey the message of their conservation and other common birds and also mark a day of celebration to appreciate the beauty of the common biodiversity which is taken for granted now.