Mysuru: If R K Laxman, Indian cartoonist who was very fond of Indian house crows was live then he may have felt very depressed after knowing that the species is shifting home and is also diminishing very fast from Indian soil.
As per researcher Paul Greenough, who is studying the species and is also coming out with a book ‘Save The Indian House Crow’, the crows across the country are drastically diminishing and many have also migrated to other countries owing to unfavourable living conditions.
Paul Greenough, environmentalist who has published papers on tiger conservation, tiger reserve and done project on jungles has started focusing on Indian House Crow. “Tens and thousands of animals, plants and insects are gradually vanishing from earth due to loss of bio diversity. Instead of writing about tigers and elephants I thought of writing about crows, which are very common in India and can be called the ‘unofficial national bird’ here because of its close connection to the people,” says Greenough.
Greenough feels that urbanization, electromagnetic waves generated through mammoth mobile towers and cutting down of trees have left crows in an uncomfortable position. The cities are no longer a safe abode for these black beauties. Food too has become a concern for these birds as food is no longer thrown out, but is instead packed in plastic bags and disposed off.
The clever birds have been hence migrating to countries like east coast Africa, Somalia in South Africa, Singapore, South East Asia, Malaysia, Middle East, Tanzania. In Singapore due to domination of Indian crow, which is posing problem to local species, they have started to eradicate Indian crow by shooting it, says Greenough.
“Culturally too, these birds have been very close to the Indian populace. If one sees, the Indian elderly had the habit of serving a handful of cooked food to these crows, before serving it to the family members. The crows are considered as representatives of the dead ancestors and serving food to crows had always been considered as auspicious in Indian culture,” he says adding that this practice too has seen a dip and today the ritual of serving food to crows has been restricted to only a few days of the year. The researcher feels that people must make it a point to serve food to the crows so as to save these birds.
“It has a cascading effect. If the crows vanish, so will the Koyals too because in the nest of the crows thrives a Koyal,” he says pointing that little children must be taught to imbibe the habit of serving a morsel of food to the crows so that they learn to admire and respect the nature.
