Chennai: In a matter of joy to one-and-all, Adyar has been named by the Madras Naturalists’ Society (MNS), as one of the few areas in the city, to have registered sightings of sparrows this year.
The organisation that is one of the oldest associations for nature conservationists, undertook a four-month-long census, a citizen-led project, starting from March to July, this year, to understand whether sparrows are comfortable with the present conditions.
This being a followup to MNS’ rapid assessment survey conducted in 2012, residents were invited to call and report on the birds in their locality. To make it more accurate, its members also individually verified the sightings.
The data was subsequently fed into the sparrow atlas on its website, www.blackbuck.org. The details such as time, place, activity of the birds (flying, calling or feeding), additional notes about trees near which they were found and their total count, were added.
The results which were released on 20 December, had listed Adyar as one of the five localities to have spotted the bird.
Speaking to News Today, MNS honorary secretary G Vijay Kumar, said, “The sightings were recorded at Shastri Nagar, Indra Nagar, MRTS stations in Kotturpuram, Kasturbai Nagar, Indra Nagar, Taramani and Velacheri. These localities which hadn’t been featured all these years, have now gone past many usual names which failed to make it this time. Though the overall number is declining, the census has helped us gain an insight into newer locations like Adyar, where sparrows have nested. A total of 101 sightings have been recorded, of which 78 were non-nesting ones and 23 were nesting.”