| ID | 5032 |
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| Q1. Name of locality or area you are reporting about | Third Main Road, GOCH Colony, Besant Nagar |
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| Rough Address/Area | Besant Nagar |
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| City/District | Chennai |
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| State | Tamil Nadu |
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| Location Latitude | 12.99856949 |
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| Location Longitude | 80.26985931 |
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| Q3. What time period are you reporting about? | 1975-1979 |
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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? | New residential development |
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| Q6. Roughly how large is the locality/area from which you are reporting sparrows? | 500 m to 1 km across (eg, a residential colony, commercial area or small village) |
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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 very large number: When I saw sparrows, there were usually more than 100 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 frequently |
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| Q11. Would you like to share a story about House Sparrows from this time period? | Yes. I was in school. My spare time during the week ends were many times spent in chasing down the poor sparrows in our hall-cum dining after closing the doors and windows surreptiously.Then I would catch them and put them under a bamboo basket and watch them in close quarters. Slowly I would slip in a small cup of water and some rice and biscuit crumbs and watch them eat. After watching them thus for and hour or so I would let them fly away, or my mother would anyway.
I would also try to climb and softly explore the nest that they would build during nesting time on the upper inset of our french collapsible glass door.
On subsequent years and times the sparrows vanished and now in Besant Nagar I do not find these sweet sparrows.
In late times the squirrels took over the nesting place from the sparrows in our house. Nowadays the squirrels too do not nest there, although they are to be found in our backyard still. Our area Besant Nagar has the large acres of swamp and green cover trees and bushes in the Besant Theosophical Society and Kalakshetra campus, and it has still got the fishing villages adjacent to the east of Besant Nagar on the sea side. |
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| Q12. What kind of buildings are/were present during this time period in this locality? | |
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| Q13. Please describe this locality/area in your words. | |
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| Q14. Does or did anyone feed sparrows in this locality/area, or put out nestboxes? | |
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| Q15. If this is an agricultural area, what are the main crops grown? | |
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| Q16. How much green space exists/existed in this locality? | |
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| Q17. If you have seen sparrow nests, where were they? | |
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| Q18. When did mobile phone coverage arrive at this locality? | |
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