Indians For Guns

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Indi ... 564034.cms


CHENNAI: Set a bird song as your mobile ringtone. For that may soon be the only way you get to hear from our winged friends — studies show that the increasing number of cell phone towers in cities is bringing down bird population.

While studies in Spain and Belgium have established the ill-effects of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) emitted by cellphone masts on birds, a study to be published next month by a team in Panjab University has found that EMR can damage bird eggs and embryos. The study, conducted in Chandigarh, is applicable to all Indian cities where cellphone masts are proliferating. Chennai has 4,000 cellphone towers, compared to about 200 in Chandigarh.

Researchers at the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON), Coimbatore, say there are enough reasons to attribute bird mortality to such radiation. "Cellphones and towers emit a very low frequency of 900 or 1,800 MHz, called microwaves. Studies have found that they can cause thin skulls of chicks and thin egg shells," says Dhanya R, a researcher at SACON.

The team at the Centre for Environment and Vocational Studies of Panjab University, headed by RK Kohli, exposed 50 eggs to EMR for durations of five minutes to 30 minutes. "All the 50 embryos were damaged. It's almost like being microwaved," Kohli told TOI.

Chennai-based zoologist Ranjit Daniels says four of the 200-odd Chennai birds — house sparrow (Passer domesticus), red-whiskered bulbul (Pycnonotus jocosus), brahmini kite (Haliastur indus) and spotted dove (Streptopelia chinensis) — have virtually disappeared.

"Birds are known to be sensitive to magnetic radiation. Microwaves can interfere with their sensors and misguide them while navigating and preying," says Daniels.

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http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Reposito ... kin-custom

WORLD WILDLIFE WEEK:

Where have all the birds gone?
Sparrows, Brahminy Kites, Red-Whiskered Bulbuls And Spotted Doves Have Disappeared From City Skies

Chennai: Early in 2005, a friend threw a challenge at R K Kohli, coordinator of Centre for Environment and Vocational Studies, Panjab University: “Can you show me one sparrow on the campus?” Thinking it would be an easy task, Kohli agreed. “I won the bet, but it took me several days,” says Kohli.

So, when the centre decided to study in December 2005, the impact of electromagnetic radiations (EMR), Kohli decided to include sparrows in the list of organisms that the radiations affect. Three years later, the study found microwaves (300 MHz to 300 GHz) emitted by cell phone towers and handsets responsible for damaging eggs and embryos. And that is just one of the urban factors driving out several species of birds out of the cities.

Chennai is no exception. According to zoologist R a n j i t Daniels, at least four of the 200-odd species of birds of Chennai are fast disappearing. On their way out are house sparrows, redwhiskered bulbuls, brahminy kites and spotted doves. “These are birds which have always been around. Now they are nowhere to be seen,” says Daniels, attributing it to an increase in population of rodents which steal eggs, disappearing open grasslands, rising temperature and modern bird-unfriendly architecture. “House sparrows used to live in crevices of buildings. The new glass houses don’t leave any space for them,” he says.

P A Azeez, senior principal scientist at Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, concurs: “Urban birds have the habit of finding an urban analogue for their wild nests. Pigeons, which are multiplying in large numbers in cities, find ventilators an analogue to their natural rocky confines. Whichever bird finds an analogue survive.” That perhaps explains the case of the disappearing brahminy kites which nest only on very tall trees.

Azeez also blames the supermarket culture. “Gone are the days of malligai kadais (old provisions stores) where birds came to feed on food grains. Today everything is packaged. The colourful plants in city gardens do not offer enough nectar or fruits for these birds,” he says. His research student Dhanya R adds another cultural dimension to the food scarcity when she notes that bird feeding, once a regular ritual in Tamil Nadu homes, is no longer in vogue.

Daniels adds an unusual angle when he holds trees planted by urban planners as villains. “Originally, Chennai was a coastal area with bushes suited for several birds. Big trees with large canopies are not suited for birds like the bulbul and sparrows. With the expansion of city, many of these birds are migrating to the suburbs or farther,” he says.

Since man domesticated chicken some 6,000 years ago, several birds have learnt to share his habitat, but now, modernisation is driving them out. Daniels says the kind of birds will keep changing with the urban habitat. “Sparrows might have come to Indian cities only in the last century. The Bible has repeated references of sparrows, indicating that they were in abundance in the Middle East 2,000 years ago. Tamil folklore has reference to chittukuruvi, but the word could mean any small bird,” says Daniels. The message: Birds may come and go for a few centuries, which is just a miniscule span in the evolutionary cycle. As cities continue to grow, some birds, mainly scavengers like crows would proliferate at the expense of other birds. Experts may be divided on the reasons for the disappearance of birds, but everyone agrees on one bad news: Once gone, these b i rd s would never be back.

Wish someone does study what effect the mobile towers have on the human beings living in its vicinity .If birds could die it surely must be effecting us also. The mobile companies must be knowing of the long term consequences but who would be bothered. I have a mobile tower barely five metres from my house.The owner of the building gets a rental of 5 lacs from the mobile company thats what I have heard and with such heavy sum involved who would bother for birds or their neighbours.

well one fine day - many years later - they will say - yep we knew it all along. it did this to the birds and that to you. Till then I guess we have to silently suffer.

I wonder how crows alone are still there in large numbers in cities. Are they wave-resistant?

Yea, and maybe years down the line they will come up with an EMR Vaccine based on a crows antibodies .

art_collector";p="55323 wrote:The mobile companies must be knowing of the long term consequences but who would be bothered. The owner of the building gets a rental of 5 lacs from the mobile company thats what I have heard and with such heavy sum involved who would bother for birds or their neighbours.

Rightly said, the bottom line is dinero, no one gives a flying fish.

cheerio

OUP

I think it is simplistic to lay the blame squarely on mobile towers/ phones. There are many factors at play here, one being habitat as rightly pointed out in the article. Also, as everyone knows vultures have pretty much disappeared from Indian skies and the crows are filling in the vacuum (to an extent); unfortunately they also prey on the eggs of other birds... also with the Maneka brigade putting a hold on the culling of stray cats and dogs... stray cats would also be taking their pound of flesh...

IIRC there was a study done in the UK some years back and apparently even domestic cats (well fed at home) account for a very large no. of bird deaths... instincts rule over need...

I read/heard somewhere not to keep my cell phone in my pant pocket or on the belt clip as the "rays" will effect my bird and eggs. Well, its been about nine years now and the bird wakes up on the same schedule/stimulus and haven't noticed any other side effect either on the eggs. My two girls so far seem normal too. Does anyone know if using the right/wrong type of service matters, like CDMA or GSM or w/e

HSharief";p="55356 wrote: I read/heard somewhere not to keep my cell phone in my pant pocket or on the belt clip as the "rays" will effect my bird and eggs. Well, its been about nine years now and the bird wakes up on the same schedule/stimulus and haven't noticed any other side effect either on the eggs. My two girls so far seem normal too. Does anyone know if using the right/wrong type of service matters, like CDMA or GSM or w/e

As a matter of fact, these waves that cater the usage of cellular networks re capable of inflicting some damage. But all the service providers and cell phone manufacturers are bound by several norms that ensure that the signal strength on handsets are of 'acceptable' frequency.

I have a whole bunch of technical information on some of these aspects that we are supposed to 'study' at our company, which is into manufacture of Cellular phones.

One important aspect of technology which may, at times, cross these norms and boundaries are 'Repeaters' which are placed to enhance the signals in that particular area. The repeaters are (or cannot) not able to distinguish only the signals of the service providers and may also enhance other microwave signals in that area. Its a 'may enhance' ... This is mostly not measurable and frequent enough for authorities to place any ban as such.

The way they are placed is determined on a lot of geological aspects including density at that area, general cloud formation, history and previous data of how much 're-bounding' of waves occur in that region, surrounding tall structures and landscapes.
Based on all this, the repeaters are programmed for a certain level of enhancement. Sometimes, when the clouds are really bad, they may add to this bit of signal enhancement, causing what is called 'destructive-interference' - the same reason why dark dusky clouds bring down your cell signal strength and your Tata-Sky signal.

However, all this is pretty within human norms, and there is no mention of how much these signals actually effect the Indian sparrows

Them (the sparrows) lessening in number could be a coincidence with the advent of cell phones, and 'could' be because of other natural reasons are Abhijeet pointed out...