The National Centre for Biological Sciences has found a drastic 25 percent decline in India’s bird population over the last two and a half decades. Such a trend would affect soil nutrient cycles, pollination, seed dispersal and ecosystem balance, besides triggering a cascading effect on public health.
The study highlights the poor understanding in India about the consequences of pesticides, which are implicated in the decline of open-habitat birds and insectivores, depriving the birds of their prey and leading to their population decline.
Pesticides are widely understood to be the main reason for the decline of insects, which in turn has affected several bird species worldwide.
Among the main villains is a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids, which are chemically similar to nicotine and are rampantly used in agriculture and veterinary medicine in India.
Neonicotinoids have raised global concerns due to their harm to beneficial insects like bees and other pollinators. This led to the ban of three neonicotinoids by the European Commission in 2018. But their continued unregulated use in India has led to prey deprivation for grassland and raptor bird species like the tawny eagle, greater spotted eagle, saras crane, great Indian bustard, Indian roller, Bengal florican and common pochard.
Also blamed are changing agriculture patterns, water pollution, silt accumulation, unscientific desilting and poor lake rejuvenation that has affected wetland and aquatic birds like the northern pintail duck, tufted duck, greater flamingo, Eurasian spoonbill, black-capped kingfisher, Baillon’s crake, spot-billed pelican, lesser adjutant, painted stork and pied kingfisher.
It needs to be realised that a robust avian population across species is beneficial to ecosystems and human wellbeing. Loss in bird populations can potentially lead to reduced agricultural yields and perpetuate the reliance on harmful pesticides, only further aggravating the situation.
This can have an adverse impact on public health, besides signalling a wider biodiversity loss that can also negatively impact the economy in the long run.
Agricultural scientists, farmers and the central and state governments need to wake up to these adversities arising from shrinking bird populations. They should spread awareness about the scientific use of pesticides and solar-panelled water pumps through strict regulatory measures. We cannot afford our skies to be even more forlorn.