The Hindu Business Line : More mobiles, and sparrows take flight

THE wireless telecom revolution is catching on at the expense of a tiny winged creature — the house sparrow. The tiny birds are fast disappearing from cities "contaminated" with electromagnetic waves arising out of increased number of mobile handsets.

According to Dr S. Vijayan, Director of the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON), "A number of studies has been conducted to find out the relationship between the increase in electromagnetic waves and the decrease in the number of sparrows. A positive correlation has been found between them."

"There have been studies in Spain which showed that sparrows disappear from cities where electromagnetic contamination is very heavy," Dr Vijayan added.

A study was initiated earlier this year in London by the British Trust for Ornithology to investigate whether the explosion of electromagnetic waves from portable handsets is wiping out sparrows in London. The British study involves 30,000 birdwatchers who will examine the urban sparrow population near cell-phone masts, where electromagnetic fields are most concentrated.

London has witnessed a steep fall in its sparrow population — a 75 per cent fall since 1994, which coincides with the emergence of the cell-phone.

Electromagnetic waves travel through the air to the cell-phone masts located above tall buildings in the cities. These waves then travel to and fro between the handset and the tower while one is using the handset, and this results in increased electromagnetic contamination in the air.

The rapidly increasing number of cell-phone subscribers is resulting in higher concentration level of electromagnetic waves in the air which clashes with the earth's electromagnetic field.

Dr Vijayan also pointed out that sparrows are found to be disappearing from areas where mobile towers are installed.

SACON has also initiated a detailed study to find out how exactly these small birds are being affected.

"These are all circumstantial evidences. Now we need to prove how it is exactly affecting the sparrows. My feeling is that it probably affects their central nervous system. We are conducting studies with inputs from various cities on the falling number of sparrows in which the effect of electromagnetic contamination from mobile phones are also being examined," Dr Vijayan said.

He said increased exposure to electromagnetic waves also affects small animals. For example, in rats, it is found that the sperm count has decreased while in the case of chicken embryonic, mortality has become very high. There could be more examples, he added.

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