Srikanth Sarathy, who grew up in the heart of Mumbai in Dadar, has fond memories of being surrounded by sparrows during his childhood because they were very hard to miss. “Sparrows were ubiquitous when I was growing up because we used to see many of them around the house. We had a little courtyard, so we used to put grains for them. So, I don’t remember not seeing sparrows,” he reminisces. It was no different for Mumbai-based wildlife biologist Anand Pendharkar, whose mother used to narrate stories of how he grew up around sparrows when they came into the house, after grains at home were cleaned. “I used to watch them and play with them, and their sound is so soothing,” he shares.

Sarathy, who has been a birder for the last 10 years and a wildlife enthusiast for much longer, moved out of Dadar to Sewri years ago, is among the lucky few who still manage to see them. “They are on the lawns and different parts of the colony and come every day and even breed there,” he says happily. However, this was after a brief lull of seven-eight years, which the 50-year-old believes could be due to the lack of tree cover in the places he frequented; it was different than how it used to be in Dadar, which he hopes sees more of them now.