| ID | 6759 |
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| Q1. Name of locality or area you are reporting about | MITS |
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| Rough Address/Area | |
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| City/District | Gwalior |
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| State | Madhya Pradesh |
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| Location Latitude | 26.22791290 |
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| Location Longitude | 78.20849609 |
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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 (outskirts) |
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| Q5. What kind of locality is/was this in the time period chosen above? | Campus |
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| Q6. Roughly how large is the locality/area from which you are reporting sparrows? | 100-500 metres across (eg, a market, bus-stand or park) |
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| Q7. How well do/did you know this place in the time period chosen above? | I worked/studied there |
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| Q8. How frequently did you see House Sparrows in the time period and locality/area chosen above? | Often: I saw sparrows several times a week |
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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 few birds: When I saw sparrows, there were usually less than 5 birds |
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| Q10. If House Sparrows are/were present in this time period and locality/area, did you observe active nests? | Sparrows observed but no nests seen |
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| Q11. Would you like to share a story about House Sparrows from this time period? | MITS Gwalior.1977-82. I never thought one day this little bird will force me to dig so deep in to my memory for a piece of information which no one imagined would be so important several decades later. I spent 5 long years in the hostel at MITS and my mind’s first reaction on being enquired about presence/absence of the sparrows in the hostel or college during this period was “no-records-found” and then “data-deficient”. Sure, those were the days of Boney M, ABBA and Amitabh Bachchan but still I clearly remembered the rows of mulberry trees at the entrance of the hostel and also the little baby squirrel I kept as pet for few days and also the little pups I photographed with my Click III camera and even submitted the pictures in a college level photography competition (without any luck!). It was easy to report “No Sparrows”, but it felt improbable. I once again sat down with closed eyes and replayed my routine in the hostel on any typical day. This persistence paid off, yielding faint images of two hopping sparrows on the dining table in the mess at 3 PM one quiet afternoon after the daytime meals. And soon it returned another image of 2 or 3 sparrows hopping on the ground picking tidbits at Murli’s roadside tea shop at Gole Ka Mandir which used to be our favourite haunt in the evening after the classes. I felt relieved and sat down to write this story of a 34 year old sparrow record. |
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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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