March 20^th is International Sparrow day, to mark this special day BCIL-ZED (Biodiversity Conservation India Private Limited- Zero Energy Development) foundation and Zoo authority of Karnataka, is holding an international conference on sparrows.

The conference being organised in association with Gandhi Krishi Vignyan Kendra, Department of Forests, Department of Urban Development along with institutes such as Christ college and St Joseph college at St. Joseph’s college auditorium.

The objective of this event is to conserve bio diversity, understand best management practices to sustain wild life and to identify different species of sparrows, their food, feeding and habitats. Around 1200 delegates are expected for this event with Indian and International speakers participating in the event.  If you wish to participate then please register for this event here.

Nests await the sparrows. Pic: Usha Hariprasad

BCIL – ZED had launched the Gubbu Goodu programme last year on the same International sparrow day.  The Gubbi Goodu (sparrow nest) initiative is a program to rehabilitate the sparrows. The horizontal and vertical sparrow nests can be hung up from your balcony or verandahs.  The nests can be bought for Rs 100/- each.  For details go here. If you are interested in feeding the birds then shrubs, seed balls, grains etc will also be provided to you.

So far this initiative has distributed 35000 sparrow nests and also inducted about 1500 volunteers for saving sparrows. As the initiative aims to spread awareness of the birds it has also conducted events at colleges and companies like Infosys, Microsoft, symphony, lifestyle, Akamai, SAP LABS, Bosch ,Christ college, Vijaya college, St. Joseph college, Bangalore University  etc.

The sparrow day was preceded by a Sparrow race, cycling event taking place on March 18^th from Vidhana Soudha to St Joseph’s College. The event was meant to spread awareness on sparrows.

To participate in such green initiatives you can login to www.zed.in.  Other environmental initiatives taken up by BCIL-ZED foundation are urban farming and seed ball. Urban farming is all about terrace gardening where the terrace space is used to grow vegetables. Every Sunday a free training session will be given on this. Seed ball is the process of growing a seed inside clay balls.

These seed balls protect the seeds from insects, animals, weather and help them germinate only in ideal conditions. Here is a slide show shared by Sandhya of BCIL about seed ball preparation. To know more about these initiatives you can contact Sandhya @ 9686456287.⊕