World Bird Day: What are reasons for Sindh government’s bird census campaign?

On the occasion of World Bird Day which will be celebrated on March 20 this year, the Sindh government has launched a bird census campaign, with very few people are aware of the importance and usefulness of this campaign.

When the Sindh Wildlife Department launched a bird census campaign, Pakistani media, including Dawn News, called it a “unique campaign” that shows the lack of public awareness of the importance of birds across the country.

The statement issued by the Sindh Government’s Wildlife Department also did not provide much information to guide the public. It was said that every year on March 20th, the government initiated a bird observation and counting program.

This year, the United Nations has designated the theme “Give the Bird a Chance to Chirp,” emphasizing the importance of bird conservation efforts worldwide. Under the banner of “I Love Birds, We Love Birds,” citizens in various countries organize activities to observe and count birds in their local surroundings, promoting environmental awareness and wildlife protection.

The Sindh Wildlife Department’s bird counting campaign started on March 17 in the morning and evening hours. Different people counted sparrows.

The results of the campaign will be released on March 20 on the occasion of World Bird Day, which will give an idea of how few or more birds are found in our country. The campaign was conducted in Steel Town, Hill Park, Kidney Hill, Bahria Town, Gadap, and Malir areas of Karachi.

Different groups formed during the campaign observed and counted sparrows at different times in the morning and evening. The Sindh government also issued a Google form for those who wished to participate in the bird census program and any person was allowed to do an individual bird census.

Citizens were told that they would be able to upload their observations on the Google link. Meanwhile, bird census was conducted in specific areas between 8 am to 9 am and 5 pm to 6 pm. Now let’s try to know why the bird is being given so much importance.

Bird-killing campaign in China

More or less 7 decades ago, in the 1950s, there was a historic famine in China, and between 1958 and 1962, China began to present a scene of hell. According to a conservative estimate, between one and a half to four and a half million people died in China due to the bird-killing campaign of the Chinese Maoist regime.

Mao’s campaign was against rats, mosquitoes, flies, insects, and sparrows, and asked people to kill these animals. Mao, the founder of China, said that China can survive without sparrows. Every method was tried to kill the birds, some shot the birds and some broke their nests.

Following a campaign initiated by the Chinese government, the Chinese nation also used the method of chasing sparrows and making noise until the sparrows fainted in flight. Sparrows don’t get a chance to go to their nests or rest, the campaign kills millions upon millions of sparrows.

Horrible results of the campaign

After the sparrow-killing campaign, suddenly the crops of the Chinese people began to grow insects, obviously when the insect-eating birds were no longer left and threatened with extinction, an insect attack was certain and it happened.

Swarms of locusts attacked the crops of the Chinese nation and destroyed the standing crops badly, and the resulting famine would not be out of place if it was called the storm of death for China. The bird-killing campaign had to be abandoned after millions of deaths from famine resulting from locust attacks.

Eventually, the Chinese government came to its senses and brought millions of birds from Russia and resettled them in China. China was filled with the corpses of sparrows, which were once abundant in China, and later human deaths taught the Chinese nation a new lesson that disturbing the natural balance is not a good move, after which reforms were introduced.