Chennai airport can take a cue from Bengaluru

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There is a remarkable story of conservation at Bengaluru’s new airport. Hundreds of sparrows twitter as they hop around the passenger terminal, pecking away at the little offerings below dining tables at several cafes.

The story goes that the sparrows were there in Devanahalli when the construction of the airport began 10 years ago and they were ‘imprisoned’ in the terminal building when it came up.

Now, they have no way of escape into the open air but they seem absolutely at ease in their protected environment.

This pleasant consequence of modernization is not seen as a nuisance. Passengers are thrilled as the little winged creatures share the habitat in which they are only in as short

a transit as possible. It is learnt that the sparrows are breeding quickly as they live away from a harmful environment of microwave tower radiation and unchecked traffic pollution.

There are pockets of such sparrow conservation in all cities, including in Chennai, where fringe suburban areas are still full of trees and shrubs.

It is said sparrows love water in a muddy base in which they frolic, getting their little wings wet as they flutter them. People often leave water in empty flowerpots to help the little creatures find a friendly place.

The hope is the sparrows will not join the list of endangered species, even if they have become rare in the ultra metropolitan environment.

Over a billion species may have been lost to time on Earth but it does appear the cute sparrows will learn to survive, as they have in that little pocket of modernity of the Bengaluru airport.

And if some eco-scientific brains can come up with a workable idea, there could be lots of chirping and flapping of little wings when the ribbons are cut at the Kamaraj and Anna airport terminals in Chennai a few months from now.