Once the boisterous companion of every household, the common house sparrow is now an elusive bird - rarely sighted and infrequently heard. Changing architectural styles, lack of green spaces and the urban sprawl led to its loss of food source and nesting nooks. Cell phone towers and shrinking foliage have added to its alarming decline. Widespread coverage in the city’s leading newspapers, highlighting their plight, lent urgency to a need for action.

The challenge was to create a sense of ownership to the cause of sparrow rehabilitation amongst Delhi-ites.

The common house sparrow is the microcosm whose absence is an indication of a serious imbalance of ecosystems. That it does not impact our lives adds to the apathy. The need of the hour: turn sparrow conservation into a mass movement through influencers whose voice is taken seriously. The creative idea had to be a reminder and a call to action that was unique: a bird house where every donation made it chirrup. That the donations were used by the Delhi Bird Society to put up identical bird houses as nesting homes for sparrow rehabilitation made it the perfect match.

Dotting the city’s parks and woods, the funds generated by the Chirya Ghar collection boxes were used to put up 148 nesting bird houses in bio-diversity parks and urban forests. Word of mouth on social media sites like Twitter created a virtual buzz and turned it into a community cause; getting active participation from the city’s resident welfare associations and neighbourhood schools. The chirruping bird house captured the city’s imagination and was also covered by leading radio channels.