THEY WERE vanishing from the city skies, the chirpy common sparrows, to a point of complete non-citing.

Then the dwindling population found some hope in shelters and after a year, they have finally started coming back in the cityscape after getting a safe nest to live and nurse young ones.

Volunteers of Sparrow Shelter, an organisation set up to save the little bird from extinction, have put up little wooden shelters atop trees at strategic locations in the city to helping the bird find a nesting place.

"We read a news report which said the sparrow population was dwindling rapidly," said Pramod Mane, president, Sparrow Shelter.

"The cause, experts at the Bombay Natural History Society said, could possibly be rapid urbanisation," says Sudhir Sakpal, secretary, Sparrow Shelter.

"Twenty years ago, it happened in Singapore and the UK, where sparrow shelters saved the bird from extinction," said Mane.

Shaped and structured to make them inaccessible to rodents, felines or squirrels, the shelters have been placed atop trees in Shivaji Park, Dadar, the Mahim nature park and Five Gardens in Matunga.

Today, almost a year later, the project is bearing fruit. "There is no census conducted but we can see that sparrows have begun nesting in these shelters," informs Sakpal, adding that their volunteers often take a peek into the boxes.

Besides, volunteers have been doing their bit to coax residents to set up shelters in the balconies of their homes. Yash Jaisinghani (13), a Class 8 student of Dhirubhai Ambani School, has a sparrow shelter in his Wadala home.

"Sparrow Shelter made a presentation in our school and I felt that the bird has to be saved from extinction. I bought one for my home and have given two to my friends who live near Lonavla," he said.

Hasmukh Haria, proprietor of an import house, installed a sparrow shelter in his Matunga office four months ago. "Slowly, the sparrows are flying in. For now, they only come to feed on grains kept for them. It will be a while before they nest here," says Haria.

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