Research Article - (2013) Volume 3, Issue 4
1Post-graduate Department of Zoology, New Arts, Commerce and Science College, Ahmednagar
2Post-graduate Department of Statistics,New Arts, Commerce and Science College, Ahmednagar
3Department of Environmental Science, New Arts, Commerce and Science College, Ahmednagar
The House sparrow (Passer domesticus indicus) is distributed all over India up to 4000m in the Himalayas. Distribution of House sparrow is not uniform in the country, and in the recent years disappearing of sparrows is also reported from various parts of the world. Rapid urbanization, deforestation (particularly of thorny shrubs), RCC housing constructions in rural and urban areas , loss of nesting sites, indiscriminate use of pesticides, use of chemically treated seeds etc. are possible reasons for disappearing of sparrows. As decline in the sparrow population is the alarming signal, to know the present status and distribution of sparrows “Citizens sparrow” programme was undertaken by Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai and other NGO’s. The study area Parner Tehasil of Ahmednagar District (Maharashtra State) shows satisfactory population of sparrows, which is equally distributed in various habitats studied.
House sparrow (Passer domesticus indicus), habitat, Distribution, Maharashtra, India
The House sparrow (Passer domesticus indicus) belongs to family Passeridae of Order Passeriformes. The national capital Delhi has adopted sparrow as the State Bird. This chirruping lovely bird is closely associated with human being and human settlements since ancient times. Neither population of world sparrow is known, nor population of sparrows in India known so far. This bird was one of the neglected bird species by researchers for many years, but it is in the late nineteen century that reports regarding disappearing of sparrows attracted many ecologist and conversationalists. A systematic ornithological study of the Northern region of Iranian Plateau is also attempted by [4].The House Sparrow is declining worldwide at an alarming state. This small bird, which is widely, distributed species in most parts of Europe and Asia is slowly disappearing from urban areas [3]. In most of Europe and United Kingdom the populations of House Sparrows are declining. The British Trust for Ornithology estimated that the sparrow population in London had declined by 71 percent between 1994 and 2002. In India also sharp decline in the sparrow population has been observed by ornithologists across Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and other cities. The sparrow population in Andhra Pradesh is dropped by 80 percent and in Kerala, Gujarat and Rajasthan there is decline by 20 percent [2]. Considering these facts many of the NGO’s and local bird watchers started a head count of sparrows at local level, and their findings are more alarming.
Parner tehasil (18.320 N, 76.150 E - 19.190 N, 74.240 E) is one of the drought prone areas of Ahmednagar District (Maharashtra, India) (Map 1). Agriculture is main traditional occupation of the locals. In the recent years though the housing style, transport and communication facilities have been improved along with little industrialization in the area, then also the rural, agricultural face of the tehasil remains untouched. It was assumed that these developments would affect the distribution of sparrows and therefore this area was selected to study the habitat wise distribution of House Sparrow (Passer domesticus indicus).
Map 1
The study area is dominated by thorny, bushy shrubs like Babhul (Acasia nilotica ssp. indica), and trees namely Neem (Azadirachta indica), Peepal (Ficus religiosa), Banyan (Ficus benghalensis), Ber (Zizipihu mauritiana), Tamarind (Tamarindus indica), Mango (Mangifera inica), Palash (Butea monosperma) and many others.
The questionnaire provided by “Citizen Sparrow” was little modified by the author (SK). 1500 students from different village schools in the tehasil were selected randomly in August 2012. These students were from different parts of the study area. The questionnaire was illustrated to the students before distribution by the author (RK). The students were asked to identify the area as rural, agricultural or urban; specify the locality as residential or agricultural; and report number of sparrows seen as 0 -5, 5-25, 25-100 or more than 100 birds. Information about nesting is also gathered. All the completed questionnaires were collected and only 122 questionnaires were statistically analyzed for the habitat wise distribution of sparrows [1].
Parner, though drought prone area of the district is known for its agricultural potential, as it supplies green vegetables to mega cities of Maharashtra. Along with green vegetables, Jawar, Bajara, Sugarcane, Wheat, Pulses are the major cash crops of the area. Chemical pesticides and fertilizers are used regularly by the farmers to get maximum yield. Parner, the main city of the tehasil, surrounded by many small villages is not much urbanized and has the rural face itself. Most of the area under study is natural arid habitat harboring diverse wildlife.
The data collected from questionnaires is presented in Tables 1 to 4 and graphs 1 to 4.
Table 1
Table 2
Table 3
Table 4
Graph 1: Dsitribution of sparrows according to area
Graph 2: Dsitribution of sparrows according to place
Graph 3: Dsitribution of nests according to area
Graph 4: Dsitribution of nests according to place
The independence of the presence of sparrows with respect to type of area is tested by using chi-square test. Since the expected frequencies in the last column of Table 1 are less than 5, that column is combined with earlier column and the expected frequencies are recalculated.
The value of chi-square calculated for this data is 3.87. The critical value of chi-square for 4 degrees of freedom (d.f.) and at 5% level of significance (l.o.s) is 9.488. Therefore we conclude that the count of sparrows statistically does not depend upon the type of area.
The independence of the sparrow count with respect to the type of place at which the count was taken is tested by using chi-square test for the data (Table 2).
The calculated value of chi-square statistic is 4.36. The critical value of chi-square for 3 d.f. and 5% l.o.s is 7.815. Thus the count of sparrows is statistically independent of the type of the place as well. The information on the presence or absence of the nests of sparrows in the different areas is represented in Table 3. The expected frequencies 3.16 and 4.33 in these tables are less than 5, therefore rural and agricultural classes are combined together.
The independence of the presence of nests with type of the area is tested by using chi-square test using Yate’s correction. Value of chi-square statistics in this case is 0, where as the chi-square critical value for 1 d.f. at 5 % l.o.s is 3.841. Thus the presence of nests is found to be statistically independent of the type of area. The data on presence and absence of the nests are also classified with respect to the type of the places (Table 4). The independence of the presence of nests with respect to the type of place is tested by using chi-square test. The value of chi-square statistics is 0.0001 where as the critical value of chi-square for 1 d.f. at 5% l.o.s is 3.841.
Thus the presence of nest is found to be statistically independent of the type of the place.
The sparrow count and the presence of nests are found to be statistically independent of the area and places studied in the Parner Tehasil.
Authors are thankful to the Principal, New Arts, Commerce and Science College, Ahmednagar for providing the facilities. Thanks are also due to the Headmasters of the Schools from Parner Tehasil for kindly allowing their students in participating in the “Citizen Sparrow” programme.
