Gone are days when house sparrows were the most common birds amongst bird species in India. The chirpy sounds made by these small birds are rarely heard today; and their absence, even though tiny, is increasingly becoming noticeable. Due to decrease in numbers, a bird as common as the sparrow was included by the IUCN in its Red Data List of threatened species in 2002 alongside the glamorous snow leopard, tiger and red panda.
The destruction of wetland bird areas, loss of shrub vegetation coupled with reduction in potential breeding sites, has accelerated the rate of decline in the sparrow population in India. But the major reason for this decline in their number is the scarcity of insects and grains which serve as protein supplements for the young ones of sparrows. The presence of anti knocking agents like lead in petrol is known to cause deadly poisoning in birds.