mumbai

Updated: Mar 21, 2018 00:18 IST

Mornings at Sankalp English School, Yashodhan Nagar, Thane, begin with chirps of sparrows. The schoolchildren start their checking if there is a baby sparrow in any of the 1,000 birdhouses installed on the school premises. The birdhouses were made by the students from Class 5 to 10. They students used cardboard and discarded papers to decorate the birdhouses.

For the past two years, the schoolchildren have been spreading awareness about the lack of sparrows in the city and measures that can be taken to increase their population. The drive is organised on the occasion of World Sparrow Day, which is observed on March 20 annually.

Besides making birdhouses, the children wrote 50 poems on sparrows this year in response to the school’s request. To encourage its students to keep up the good work, the school published the collection of Marathi poems. The compilation is called Chimukli Chiutai (The tiny sparrow).

“Last year, we put some birdhouses and spread awareness about the importance of sparrows. We informed the children about the depleting numbers of sparrows owing to concretisation. As more sparrows started nesting in the birdhouses, more students joined in,” said Jyoti Parab, principal, Sankalp English School.

Neha Mane, 9, a student of the Sankalp English School, said, “I’m excited that one of my poems has been featured in the book. We love the birds that fly in the school, especially sparrows. I wrote a poem on how the concrete jungle has left sparrows without natural shelter. So we made the birdhouses to help sparrows have a proper nesting place.”

Similarly, 10year old, Sairaj Parab equally excited said, “Sometimes there are sparrows who give birth to baby sparrows in these bird houses. We always have an eye on these as we love to name the newly born sparrows.”

“Our aim is not only to create awareness among our students but also to encourage them to take up an initiative to work for the society in the future,” added Parab.