| ID | 7591 |
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| Q1. Name of locality or area you are reporting about | The Mall, near Hotel Sher-e-Punjab. |
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| Rough Address/Area | The Mall |
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| City/District | Shimla |
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| State | Himachal Pradesh |
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| Location Latitude | 31.10327911 |
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| Location Longitude | 77.17692566 |
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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 visited frequently |
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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? | 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? | My observation is that aparrows vanished as sook as the mobile towers increased in the cities and towns which you have not mentioned . I lived in Jalandhar and Mohali for 4 years at each place but saw no sparrows from 2002 to 2011.
Mohali and Chandigarh are most fascinating places for bird watching. At Mohali/Chandigarh, many wonderful species of birds will wake you up with thier most wonderful chirping and co-coos. I dont know their names but many woderful small birds, even smaller than the domestic sparrows can be seen occasionally, but not this sparrow any more. Mohali and Chandigarh has got ample greenery and large trees aroung each house, and hence the birds. But mobile has killed all the delicate domestic sparrows. The domestic sparrows are very sensitive and were very nice to hold in the hand as they are very delicate and as thier body temperature is 108 deg.F. We would often trap them in our bed rooms and then cought them to have thier feel them but released them soon afterwords. Gone are those days. Courtsy mobile towers.
Very soon we will be living like in Hong Kong, where birds can only be seen in Bird Parks which has nets around a large area to keep the birds inside. Nowhere else in city, you can see any bird. In Schengen, Govt. has put speakers on tree tops that give birds like co-coo sound, but no birds even in forest.
I have some photographs of sparrows in Shimla but alas, there is provision to attach the photographs. |
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| Q12. What kind of buildings are/were present during this time period in this locality? | Non-food shops |
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| Q13. Please describe this locality/area in your words. | Mobile towers were very far and area is hilly. Plenty of trees around but sparrows were sighted in residential area. |
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| Q14. Does or did anyone feed sparrows in this locality/area, or put out nestboxes? | Neither |
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| Q15. If this is an agricultural area, what are the main crops grown? | Not an agricultural area but ample greenery is around. |
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| Q16. How much green space exists/existed in this locality? | Some |
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| Q17. If you have seen sparrow nests, where were they? | Wall cavity, Other (please specify), space between slanted terrace areas. |
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| Q18. When did mobile phone coverage arrive at this locality? | 2000-2004 |
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