I am Tara, a happy house sparrow, living with my family in the city of Bangalore. My parents were born here and grew amongst nature and the friendly people of Bangalore. My childhood was spent entwined with humans, like the rock pigeons brooding in high-rises.
When I was young, my friends and I flitted through the backyards of human dwellings, chirping on the branches of trees. We didn’t fear humans and hopped on the ground near the ladies who cleaned rice on pans hoping to grab some falling grains. We would laze around in the cozy nests built by our parents in between the inner and outer layers of the tiled roofs of houses, watching humans go about their daily lives.
Recently, loss of farmlands, lakes and parks in Bangalore owing to urbanization as well as the excess usage of pesticide has caused our food sources like insects to become scarce. The lack of suitable nesting and roosting sites threatened our very survival. We began searching desperately for a sustainable habitat for our species.
We flew all across Bangalore in search of a new home and came across a patch of land filled with tress, water bodies, shrubs and lawns adjoining the Veerasandra Lake in Electronic city. My family was delighted to find such a place and grew elated on finding few of our relatives and friends already living there happily feeding on fish and insects available in plenty.
We found a building nestled within this greenery where humans worked amidst nature, having open meetings on terraces shaped like Balinese rice fields, walking on paths adjoining the bio lake, soaking in the scenic beauty of the natural Veerasandra lake merging with the bio lake and feeding the fishes. We found the humans here radiated energy and enthusiasm and enjoyed working there. We were inspired by their open office design allowing an abundance of natural light and air. There was no air-conditioning puffing out harmful gases but only an array of solar panels, glittering on the roof. This building is a Platinum LEED certified building with a 5 star GRIHA rating, a phenomenal feat even among humans.
Our entire family felt blessed by our ancestors for finding this wonderful place we now call home. Food is abundant here as the rich landscape is entirely manured (organic insects!!) which we share with a vibrant variety of fauna. This campus, I came to understand is the corporate office of Titan Company. By creating this facility, Titan has not only brought happiness to sparrows and humans alike but has also contributed towards protecting the environment by restoring the ecological balance in this part of Bangalore.
I have already invited my extended family members to shift here and also invite all of you all to visit our new home to get inspired to further the cause of our precious environment.
Lessons Learned
- We have to take care of our environment from degradation as Earth is the unique home for all life.
- Involving everybody who cared for and depended on the wellbeing of our environment created a new sustainable home to us as well as our neighbours.
- Our new home has become an inspiration for others to live harmoniously with nature.