Environmentalists on a mission to save birds in Kothagudem

An SCCL employee, Kotturu Nurvi Rajasekhar, who launched the novel initiative, Prakrithi Haritha Deeksha, is now on a mission to save the birds.

Kothagudem: A few concerned environmentalists in Kothagudem district have been distributing paddy sheaves free of cost to people to feed and conserve birds, especially house sparrows.

An SCCL employee, Kotturu Nurvi Rajasekhar, who launched the novel initiative, Prakrithi Haritha Deeksha, is now on a mission to save the birds. He has been distributing dried paddy sheaves and nests to people free of cost. He said he was inspired by farmer and environmentalist P Dali Naidu of Tuni in Andhra Pradesh who has been making the bunches of paddy sheaves and hanging them at his farm and house to feed the birds.

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Speaking to Telangana Today, Rajasekhar informed that he bought the paddy sheaves from Naidu at his own expense and was distributing them to his friends and acquaintances free of cost for the last two weeks. He said he was doing his part to conserve nature.

Until a few years ago house sparrows were seen everywhere but now they have become rare to sight due to rapid urbanisation, declined ecological resources and of course radiation from mobile towers. Though sparrows are found here and there, the numbers are very less, he worried.

Rajasekhar informed that in addition to the above reasons, monkeys are playing havoc with the lives of the birds of all kinds. “Recently monkeys damaged a bird nest built on a tree at my sister’s house and ate the eggs,” he said. “Since then I have been procuring handmade artificial nests online and distributing them to people with an advice to hang them at a place unreachable by monkeys. With this we could save the lives of at least some birds,” he noted.

Working on the lines of Rajasekhar, another SCCL employee, Datla Venkateswaralu of the 24 incline area of Yellandu in the district has also been buying paddy sheaves from AP’s Naidu and distributing them to his friends, family members and the company employees.

“In my childhood I watched a large flock of sparrows, parrots and other birds on the trees in our house. Now we hardly see such birds as the majority of people are not willing to grow trees in their houses. Hanging paddy sheaves might attract the birds,” he added.