Nesting Hope: Koodugal Trust’s Mission to Bring Back Sparrows

A unique initiative by a Chennai based NGO, Koodugal (Nests) is contributing to a rise in population of sparrows in Chennai.

Founded by Ganeshan D, a Business Analyst, the NGO has  built around 10000 simple wooden boxes roping in children from thirty five schools and gets them  install these at their homes so sparrows could make them their nests. 

The initiative has turned into a movement in Chennai. Videos, photographs and the feedback from hundreds of children document the life of sparrows at their homes  and  give a wealth of information on what draws sparrows and what doesn’t work. Ganesan tells tellmystory.in “Sparrows like dark places with less temperature. They like places with sand, love to play in water and swing on ropes. They just love to look at themselves in  a mirror”. 

Sparrows  eat cockroaches and many invisible insects and protect communities from diseases.

It’s an amazing experience for school children to make these news using the materials from the exclusive kit developed by Koodugal Trust. It’s a double delight for them when sparrows come calling at their homes and a triple delight when they multiply. “At least ten percent of these students would want to take it forward and we hope more and more people would give space for sparrows at their homes”, Ganeshan adds.