After setting up more than 5,000 sparrow shelters in the city, Mane has a new mission — a bird gallery with a capacity of more than 100 bird houses for various types of birds to come and stay under one roof.
It has been a little over three years since Dharavi-based environment activist Pramod Mane launched his ambitious Sparrows Shelter project — a specialised artificial nest for the fast vanishing sparrows in the city.
After setting up more than 5,000 such shelters in the city, Mane has a new mission — a bird gallery with a capacity of more than 100 bird houses for various types of birds to come and stay under one roof.
Mane said that since August 2007 till August 15, 2010, Sparrows Shelter has set up more than 5,000 bird houses across the city, out of which more than 70% have been occupied by sparrows or other endangered species of birds.
“We have also been able to monitor the progress of the sparrow count and I can say with confidence that as many as 35,000 baby sparrows have been born out of the shelters of our organisation. We wanted to take the idea ahead and Dr Kamlakar Jaripatake, a zoology professor from RN Ruia College has been helping us with the bird gallery,” Mane said.
The gallery will be a 40 feet long, 20 feet wide and 15 feet high structure made up of wood, which will be covered from all sides with a two feet tall cement concrete wall. The area inside will have about 100 bird houses with 2x2 inch space.
There will be aluminium strips for easy entry and exit, primarily meant for small birds. “During the morning, we expect approximately 150 birds of different species ranging from sparrows, white eye, sun birds, bulbul, maina, robin, asian vobler, rosy paster, munia, barbet, kingfisher, collard dova and many more,” said Mane.
He added that the gallery, which is being constructed on the ground of Manohar Joshi College in Dharavi, will be surrounded by mineral-rich Salvadora plants and berry plants, which will attract the birds. “We will also have small ponds with guppy fish to attract the kingfishers,” added Mane.
When asked about the particular ground being chosen to construct the gallery and not the nearby Maharashtra Nature Park, which is a project of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, Mane said that it was not possible for a little known organisation like Sparrows Shelter to go ahead with the processing paper work essential to tip up with the state government.
He said that the maintenance cost of the gallery will be borne by his organisation, which is an NGO.
Mane and his colleagues have prepared the design for the gallery and the construction is under-way. “We intend to finish by January 2011 and will officially launch the gallery on World Environment Day on June 5. However, we may fall short of funds and are looking at sponsors who can help us on the project, which is likely to cost around Rs3.5 lakh,” added Mane.
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