March 20, World Sparrow Day: Sparrow award a feather in city girl’s cap


Write Comment     |     E-Mail To a Friend     |     Facebook     |     Twitter     |     Print
Bangalore Mirror

Bangalore, 20 March 2012:

15-year-old Ramita Kondepudi’s efforts to conserve sparrows has paid rich dividends – she has bagged a coveted national award, nudging out well-known environmentalists

 

Girls her age usually have a thing or two for Sparrow – Jack Sparrow, that is, the flighty protagonist of Pirates of the Caribbean. But the spunky Ramila Kondepudi, all of 15, is making a name for herself in the field of conservation of sparrows, the real flighty kind. She has come up trumps over environmentalists and conservationists to bag a national award for  for her efforts.

 

On World Sparrow Day on Tuesday, Ramita, a 10th grade student from Canadian International School in Yelahanka, will receive the National Sparrow Award in Mumbai. Three others have been chosen for this honour - Madhya Pradesh-based welding professional Dilsher Khan, Maharashtra-based Green Volunteers and Gujarat’s Sri Mahatma Gandhi Ashramsala.

 

 

Ramita organised the first green conference for schools where sparrow conservation was one of the key themes. She has set up artificial nest boxes for sparrows

Mohammed Dilawar, one of the panelists, told Bangalore Mirror, “Ramita was one of the three contestants from Bangalore. What made her stand apart is that her actions were louder than that of the others despite being a 10th grade student. She has begun her actions from home to community.”

 

Dilawar, regarded as the Sparrow Man of India, said, “Determined to conserve the sparrow population in Bangalore, Ramita organised the first Green Conference for schools a few months back where sparrow conservation was one of the key themes. She also set up and promoted artificial nest boxes and artificial feeding units for the sparrows. Being the president of the school’s eco club, she played a crucial role in implementing a portable biogas plant at her school. The young environmentalist regularly records her personal thoughts, views and experiences about sparrow conservation and posts interesting green news on her blog thinkgreenspeak.blogspot.in,” Dilawar added.

 

Ramita has also topped in studies despite the heavy academic syllabus of nine subjects under IGCSE (Cambridge) curriculum. That’s not all. Ramita and her team had earlier won a gold medal at the All India Robotics Olympiad in 2010 and represented India in the 2010 World Robotics Olympiad in Manila, Philippines.

 

The award was instituted in 2010 by the Nasik-based Nature Forever Society. National Sparrow Day celebrations were held for the first time in Bangalore in 2011. Mumbai is hosting the celebrations this year.

 

House Sparrow

The House Sparrow is a bird of the sparrow family Passeridae, found in most parts of the world. One of about 25 species in the genus Passer, the House Sparrow occurs naturally in most of Europe, the Mediterranean region, and much of Asia. Its intentional or accidental introductions to many regions, including parts of Australia, Africa, and the Americas, make it the most widely distributed wild bird. The House Sparrow is strongly associated with human habitations, and can live in urban or rural settings. Though found in widely varied habitats and climates, it typically avoids extensive woodlands, grasslands, and deserts away from human development. A small bird, it has a length of 16 centimetres (6.3 in) and a weight of 24–39.5 grams (0.85–1.39 oz). Females and young birds are coloured pale brown and grey, and males have brighter black, white, and brown markings. The House Sparrow feeds mostly on the seeds of grains and weeds, and insects, and can perform complex and unusual tasks to obtain food. The predators of the House Sparrow include domestic cats, hawks, owls, and many other predatory birds and mammals."The World Sparrow Day" is being celebrated on 20th March across the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Write Comment     |     E-Mail To a Friend     |     Facebook     |     Twitter     |     Print
Comments on this Article
Philip Mudartha, Qatar Tue, March-20-2012, 1:02
I do not want to belittle passion, vision and achievements of another human being, especially a teenager who is lucky to be recognized, on World Sparrows Day. (I did not know they also had a day only for them!). Sparrows were pests when I was 15. I have spent hours driving them away, from whatever food we had to process in the aangann and khadap. Their chirpy music was not really a dear to my ears then. After being absent from my life for years, they arrived once again occupying my window-sills, balconies and chirping away, in competition with pigeons. I have a whole band now, to which I wake up here in Qatar!
Eugene DSouza, Moodubelle Tue, March-20-2012, 8:13
Congratulations Ramita for winning National Sparrow Award. Your efforts in conserving the lovely rare bird is amazing and praiseworthy. The little birds who used to be a regular sight during my childhood days have practically disappeared as their normal habitat of straw or hey house-roofs have given way to tiles and later to concrete terraced houses.
Write your Comments on this Article
Your Name
Native Place / Place of Residence
Your E-mail
Your Comment   You have characters left.
Security Validation
Enter the characters in the image above
    
Disclaimer: Kindly do not post any abusive, defamatory, infringing, obscene, indecent, discriminatory or unlawful material or SPAM. BelleVision.com reserves the right to block/ remove without notice any content received from users.
GTI MarigoldGTI Marigold
Anil Studio
Badminton Sports AcademyBadminton Sports Academy

Now open at Al Qusais

Veez Konkani IllustratedVEEZ Konkani

Weekly e-Magazine

New State Bank of India, Customer Service Point
Cool House ConstructionCool House Construction
Uzvaad FortnightlyUzvaad Fortnightly

Call : 91 9482810148

Your ad Here
Power Care
Ryan Intl Mangaluru
Ryan International
pearl printing
https://samuelsequeira.substack.com/publish
Omintec
Kittall.ComKittall.Com

Konkani Literature World

Konkanipoetry.com
Bluechem