Two women in Chennai and Mysuru help the tiny birds make a comeback 

In two corners of South India, the familiar chirping of house sparrows, once nearly absent from city soundscapes, is making a quiet return, thanks to the efforts of two determined women: Sadhna Rajkumar in Chennai and Kokila Ramesh Jain in Mysuru.

For Sadhna, a Besant Nagar resident, the mission began with a memory. As a child in Chembur, Mumbai, she awoke to the soft pecking of sparrows outside her grandfather’s window.

He would scatter handfuls of bajra on the window ledge, drawing a flutter of birds each morning. Years later, raising her own children in Chennai’s concrete sprawl, she realised something was missing, the sparrows were gone. Her children had never known the song she once took for granted.

Determined to act, Sadhna hand-made 50 nests in 2013 and distributed them at Marina Beach, sparking a city-wide movement.

What began as a personal project has since grown exponentially, with over 5,000 nests now shared across Tamil Nadu, from Mylapore and Perambur to distant districts like Kanyakumari. An estimated 40 per cent of homes that installed these nests have reported the return of sparrows, bringing back a piece of the natural soundscape.

In Mysuru, Kokila faced the same silence. A bird lover and homemaker from Siddartha Nagar, she began building bird homes in 2019 using her own designs. Over the years, she has crafted 150 nests and distributed more than 800 to others in the community.

At the bustling Devaraja Market, she launched a micro-sparrow conservation drive, initially met with scepticism from vendors, but now embraced as a way of life. Kokila provides foxtail millet and broken rice for feeding stations, and sparrows have become a part of the market’s daily rhythm.

Experts link the sparrows’ decline to rapid urbanisation, glass-clad buildings, electromagnetic radiation, and the loss of traditional practices like scattering grain waste. Both women tackled these issues head-on. Sadhna partnered with a local potter named Perumal in Villivakkam to create breathable terracotta nests costing just Rs 80, while Kokila designed her own bird-friendly models with practical features.

Education is central to their efforts. Sadhna conducts workshops on nest placement, water bowls, and grain scattering, while Kokila checks in regularly with residents and market vendors to ensure upkeep of the nests and feeding spots.

Kokila also hosted a sparrow conservation event in Mysuru on March 16, 2024 just ahead of World Sparrow Day, the event involved local children in planting saplings and installing feeders.

Thanks to the quiet persistence of two women, the house sparrow is being welcomed home once again.