NGO to distribute 1,000 bird houses this summer

Nagpur: On target for rural development and environment awareness, NGO Yashodhara Foundation has come up with a project for saving vanishing birds from city area. In the last three years the NGO has made and supplied 1,000 bird houses free to the citizens. It has now set a target to supply another 1,000 this year, mostly during summer. NGO has also started conducting workshops to make students and youths aware of importance of rescuing birds as well.
Foundation president Tanveer Mirza said, “At various events and exhibitions, we put up a stall where we display these bird houses. People visit out stall, register their name. Later we contact them, reach their home and install the bird house. We don’t charge them anything. We only expect them to maintain it well by keeping a sufficient supply of water and food grains.”
“A lot of those people have observed pigeons visiting them in summer. There was a time when sparrows were all around but the species has diminished,” he said.
He said, “We have reached a sad phase where birds don’t find availability of nest sites. Our changing lifestyle is the major reason. It is because of the renovation of old buildings, and modern architectural designs, especially roofs with no recesses, clearance of shrubs in parks and removal of creepers from walls.”
From last four years, the NGO has been working to spread awareness about the vanishing bird species. “We make people understand how their present lifestyle is affecting birds,” he said. In the first year, they successfully installed bird houses at 200 locations, in the second they distributed 800 houses, and this year till date they have installed 600 bird houses.
Alongside, the NGO has also been conducting awareness workshops in schools and colleges where they also train the students to make bird houses out of plywood. The students also get certificates for the same. During training, the raw materials are provided by the NGO. The bird houses being distributed are the ones prepared by the school and college students during training sessions.
Mirza added, “Once they prepare it, install it at their house, provide a regular supply of grain and water and see the birds getting benefited through that; the person will automatically develop an affection towards the birds and then tend to check his own lifestyle which might be affecting the them.”