COIMBATORE: The
Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation, along with environmental organisations, on Monday launched 'Project Sparrow' in the city. The initiative aimed at placing 3,000 'sparrow nest-boxes' (bird houses for sparrows) across the city in around two years. These boxes will be placed in corporation offices, schools, bus stands and other places, said organisers of the project.
The nest-boxes have been designed based on the regulations of
British Ornithological Society, said
Vinny R Peter of Centre for Urban Biodiversity Conservation and Education (Cube), which has been involved in the project. "There are several kinds of nest-boxes. But we have made these boxes for sparrows in line with the regulations based on a research by the British Ornithological Society," she said and added that the boxes had been made to dimensions where only sparrows can inhabit the box. Or else birds such as babblers would occupy them," she said. Conservationists said the opening of a sparrow nest-box should be 32mm. "If it is small the sparrow can't get in. If it is bigger, squirrels and other bigger birds would occupy the boxes," said a conservationist.
In the first phase, they have made 250 boxes to be installed in corporation offices and bus stops, said Vinny. Along with Cube, the city-based
Sparrow Conservation Foundation too will work for the project. B Pandiarajan, president of Sparrow Conservation Foundation said they installed around 30 boxes in
Ukkadam and surrounding areas. "We will also install boxes in the main bus stands in the city," he said.
The first step in installing boxes across residential areas was mapping the places where sparrows frequent. Then, there would be awareness sessions on sparrows for residents of the area. "Only with the help of local residents we would install the boxes," said Vinny. After installing them, they would also monitor the boxes, she said.
Organisers said they would rope in students to study the success of the nest-boxes.
Representative image