Impact of urbanization on house sparrow population in Virudhunagar district, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

The present study was carried out to assess the impact of urbanization on the present status of house sparrow population in selected rural, sub-urban and urban areas of Virudhunagar District. From the investigation, it was revealed that the number of house sparrow population was found to be more in the rural areas such as, Virudhunagar Taluk (631), Tiruchuli (577), Sivakasi (443), Kariapatti (394), Aruppukottai (350), Srivilliputhur (304), Rajapalayam (292) and Sattur Taluk (271). The present study also correlates the number of house sparrow population with urban and rural population and it was revealed that population of house sparrows was high in the Taluks with high percentage of the rural population like Tiruchuli (94.2%), Kariapatti (71.83%) and Virudhunagar (48.9%). The decline in population in both urban and sub-urban habitats might be due to lack of nesting sites, lack of food grains due to pocketed method of grains in super markets and modern architecture of buildings.