World Sparrow Day is a day dedicated to grow in friendship with sparrows and birds. It is a call to befriend nature and environment to make this world a better place for us humans and and the avian friends.
As an international initiative by the Nature Forever Society of India in collaboration with the Eco-Sys Action Foundation (France) and numerous other national and international organisations across the world, this is a meaningful way of letting the world of birds travel with us on this journey of life.
Let us not imitate China’s blunder. Chairman Mao Zedong, during his ‘Great Leap Forward’ revolution, declared that sparrows and three other creatures were pests destroying farm cultivation. He led a nationwide campaign engaging villagers, farmers, bureaucrats and even school children to chase, shoot and kill
all sparrows. The slogan was ‘Smash the Sparrows.’
When the sparrows were gone, Mao thought he would enjoy a good sleep. But then came the great leap forward of insects and locusts with a vengeance to declare an ecological disaster. There were no natural predators like sparrows to eat up and eliminate the insect pests. There followed massive crop failure resulting in the great famine of 1960. With one billion sparrows gone, a staggering 55 million people became victims of starvation and death. Even bed bugs led a great leap forward and kept awake Mao and his devotees whole nights.
The bed bugs made him think without a wink. He landed on the idea of asking pardon to the world of sparrows. As a result, he imported to China from the USSR 250,000 sparrows.
Mao’s foolhardy attempt to use the army of manpower to kill environmentally and ecologically useful beings ended up in ecological imbalance and human disaster.
We human beings are entrusted with the responsibility of protecting nature and guarding nature’s gifts. Let us learn to do our bit before machines and harmful pests overtake us through human error.
