The cross-fertilisation of ideas across the country has continued unabated, despite lack of physical exhibitions of grassroots innovations in different parts of the country. A Rs 5,000 bamboo windmill innovation by Mehtar Hussain and Mushtaq Ahmed from Assam got transferred to Gujarat to improve the lives of salt workers. Already, 25 windmills have been installed by Grassroots Innovation Augmentation Network (GIAN) in Pipavav with the support of Choudhary Designers and Fabricators, Ahmedabad, and Alstom Foundation. By December, 50 windmills would have been installed costing about Rs 65,000 each making a palpable difference to the lives of salt workers. This time, I want to share a few more inspiring stories about how green grassroots innovations are helping in conservation of birds.

Let me share the story of the principal of a technical college who has distributed lakhs of bird nests made of clay for providing shelter to the sparrows becoming rarer in urban areas. 

Dr Paresh A Raval, principal of an engineering polytechnic – earlier in Kutch and now in Ahmedabad, is a man with a noble mission to provide these vulnerable birds a home to nest in. In 2010, when he was posted in Bhuj, a personal setback turned his life around. His younger brother’s wife passed away leaving behind two young children. He was distressed to see the plight of the young ones who had lost their mother at such a young age.

One day as he was sitting in his courtyard he observed something unusual. He noticed two sparrow eggs inside an old pair of shoes. He was appalled by the sight and felt pity for the plight of these birds that do not have even a place to lay their eggs in. Suddenly he correlated this incident thinking just as humans would suffer when someone close is lost, how would a bird feel when it cannot even bring her young ones to this world safely? He thought of this as a divine calling and found a way to fill the sad void that his family was experiencing at that time. Life was never the same again. Dr Raval decided from that moment that he will provide a ‘home’ to these birds.

Soon after, he was transferred to Ahmedabad, where he immediately made a design for clay pot nests. A potter near his college helped him get about 5,000 such clay nests made from a nearby village. This passion has taken over him completely and he carries a clay pot nest wherever he goes and gifts one to anyone who needs it (including a Honey Bee team). All this has been done out of his own pocket. He says that he gets tremendous satisfaction and a sense of peace when he provides homes to these birds. Till date, he has distributed over one lakh such clay nests.

He says this is his “return gift” to nature! Dr Raval even carries special sturdy iron nails and wire along with the clay nests (so as to immediately help in hanging the pot when he gifts it to someone). The SRISTI team recalls a similar incident about ten years back when someone spotted sparrow eggs inside a urinal, which was unused for many days. The sight was pitiful!

Dr Raval recalls meeting one of his friends, Mr Kabra, who is a keen bird enthusiast himself. Kabra feeds about 150 crows every day.

He says modern houses do not have a place for our feathered friends. The reasons for the dwindling number of sparrows are the heavy cutting of greenery, radiation from cell phone towers, pollutants like lead as emission in the exhaust of vehicles and the heat wave due to global warming. He says all the odds are there, but there are so many old shops and houses having a roof of iron sheet or clay tiles on wooden trusses underneath which, these birds make their nest. Since sparrows are not good at making their own nest, they lay their egg on small holes or behind small support or at any odd place.

How can we extend them our help? Dr Raval suggests simple steps for urbanites: provide greenery and little space in any odd corner of the house. Provide the shelter of a card box, bamboos inside covered places, where it is safe in heavy winds and rain; otherwise use stronger clay pots to act as good shelter against rain and wind. Grow trees, plants and shrubs, because one of the feeds for sparrows other than food grain is insects, which need greenery. We can rationalise use of cell phone. Why cannot we provide green bushes or shelters for them against heat waves?

It is the zeal, love and compassion of people like him that we still have feathered friends for our company. We remember how the great ornithologist Dr Salim Ali was inspired for life, after he witnessed the ‘The Fall of a Sparrow’. We hope that more readers will get feather in their caps – sorry nests!

I appreciate the efforts of Hiranmay who brought Dr Raval in touch with Honey Bee Network and Somya who helped in getting this narration put together for wider awareness through Honey Bee newsletter and other media. If you know of other conservation enthusiasts who are using innovative strategies to conserve wildlife or augment livelihood of people so as to reduce pressure on nature, please write back.

Long live the tribe of such conservation volunteers!

Where have all the sparrows gone?
Our feathered friends are at a risk, because
* There is less and less greenery around
* Radiation from cell phone towers
* Pollutants like lead as emission in the exhaust of vehicles
* The heat wave due to global warming

What can you do about it?
* Provide greenery and little space in any odd corner of your house
* Provide the shelter of a card box, bamboos inside covered places, where it is safe in heavy winds and rain; otherwise use stronger clay pots to act as good shelter against rain and wind
* Grow trees, plants and shrubs, because one of the feeds for sparrows other than food grain is insects, which need greenery.
* Rationalise the use of cell phone
* Provide green bushes or shelters for the birds against heat waves