| ID | 1628 |
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| Q1. Name of locality or area you are reporting about | Om Aditya CHS, Ganeshwadi, Panch-Pakhadi |
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| Rough Address/Area | Khopat, Thane West |
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| City/District | Thane |
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| State | Maharashtra |
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| Location Latitude | 19.20078278 |
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| Location Longitude | 72.96596527 |
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| Q3. What time period are you reporting about? | 2010-2012 |
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| Q4. What kind of general area are you reporting about? | City (main) |
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| Q5. What kind of locality is/was this in the time period chosen above? | Old residential area |
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| Q6. Roughly how large is the locality/area from which you are reporting sparrows? | Less than 100 metres across (eg, a few houses or shops) |
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| Q7. How well do/did you know this place in the time period chosen above? | I lived there |
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| Q8. How frequently did you see House Sparrows in the time period and locality/area chosen above? | Always: I saw sparrows every day |
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| Q9. When you did see House Sparrows in this time period and locality/area, how many did you typically see? | A fair number: When I saw sparrows, there were usually between 5 and 30 birds |
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| Q10. If House Sparrows are/were present in this time period and locality/area, did you observe active nests? | Nests seen occasionally |
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| Q11. Would you like to share a story about House Sparrows from this time period? | Hello Sparrow lovers,
As per my observations, sparrows are declining in cities where there are concrete buildings, Their nesting places are aggressively encroached by the Blue Rock pigeons. as pigeon population is growing very fast in cities. About ten years back sparrows used to nest in our window ventilators not bothered for our presence nearby. However now pigeons had taken over that place for nesting. Hence to get rid of them we had to put window grills. In front of our building there is one tree of Bakul, with small leaves but dence foilage. Every morning and evening some sparrows about 50 to 80 numbers gather and start criping. They all roost for the night on same tree. this tree is very dence so pigeons can not roost.
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There are certain religious fanatic followers who feed the pigeons with gunny bags loads of grains-. Some even feed them by Basmati rice or costly wheat grains religiously. These people protect the pigeons even against their natural enemies like cats, dogs, crows, kites etc. Hence such activity has totally disturbed the natural biodiversity of the cities and urban areas.
The pigeons are now so aggressive that they enter our houses and roost in lofts, make lot of noise, dirt, shit around. Because of this there is always danger of desease like bird-flue.
Even if they are driven away, they come back after some time with out any fear. The pigeons make nests and lay eggs, start incubating within one day in our house when we are away for a day. To avoid this many people have installed grills on windows to stop these dirty pigeons entering in the house. I advise these people to install grills with bigger holes size of 2 inch dia to facilitate only sparrows and small birds like bulbuls in your balconyand windows.
If you go to villages where there is less population of fanatics, pigeons are also very few and you see more house sparrows.
We should request the religious leaders to understand all this and stop advising their followers to feed the pigeons which are supposed to be their ancestors taken 'rebirth' as pigeons.
In some countries feeding pigeons is totally banned even fined heavily.
Anil Kunte
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| Q12. What kind of buildings are/were present during this time period in this locality? | Apartment complexes |
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| Q13. Please describe this locality/area in your words. | There is less trafic. There are few trees like banyan, ecalyptus, bakul. Residential buildings have some grills through which only sparrows can enter, hence may be facilitating nesting place for them against pigeons. |
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| Q14. Does or did anyone feed sparrows in this locality/area, or put out nestboxes? | Don't know |
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| Q15. If this is an agricultural area, what are the main crops grown? | NA |
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| Q16. How much green space exists/existed in this locality? | A few |
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| Q17. If you have seen sparrow nests, where were they? | , not seen so far |
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| Q18. When did mobile phone coverage arrive at this locality? | 1995-1999 |
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