Birds are important indicators of health of an ecosystem and provide various ecosystem services like spreading seeds through their droppings, controls pests, pollinate plants, and so on. Birds are considered to be high valued elements of the natural world with more than eleven thousand species around the world. In 2018, Delhi witnessed 281 species of birds like Indian peafowl, Sunbird, Indian Vulture, Common tailorbird, bristled grassbird, to name a few.  

Within the last few years, almost 80% of the birds species found in India have been on decline. Hunting and habitat loss are the two main reasons behind the decline. "This assessment of nearly 867 Indian species makes it very clear that our birds are in overall decline, in some cases catastrophically so," according to the “State of India’s Birds 2020” report released on 17 February 2020 during the United Nations 13^th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species, in the western Indian state of Gujarat.

      Photo: IUCN India

This decline is a wake-up call for us to start acting and ensuring that we conserve our birds species. IUCN India under its Leaders for Nature program is seeking to empower youth with information and encourage actions that can contribute to the bigger aim of nature conservation. A session on importance of birds in an ecosystem and an exercise on nest building were held at K. R. Mangalam World School in New Delhi, in association with Mr. Rakesh Khatri, Ecoroots Foundation, IUCN member. 120 students of the school enthusiastically participated and were encouraged to contribute towards their protection as an individual.

Mr. Rakesh holds Limca Book of Records for maximum number of workshops on handmade nests in India. Till now, the organization has made 1,05,000 nests of Jute and wooden out of which 65% is occupied. It has also targeted 1,12,000 students till now, spreading awareness on how to contribute through their actions in sparrow conservation.

Youth are an important segment of our society. Their streamlined actions can play a powerful role in conserving nature. It was pure joy to witness student’s keen interest and enormous enthusiasm about their roles as youth in conserving nature!