India, March 19 -- The humble house sparrow or Passer domesticus is a bird most of us grew up with. The chorus of chirping that greeted one at sunrise and sunset was as good as clockwork, but slowly and surely these little delightful and hyperactive birds have bid adieu to our homes and cities. This has been an ongoing process since the 1990s.

Designated as the State bird of Delhi in 2012, the sparrow has been facing multiple threats to its very existence but, curiously, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List has categorised the bird as being of "Least Concern" which means that it is a species requiring least conservation attention. This is concerning considering that huge swathes of the sparrow population hav...