Usha Lachungpa -
Mahatma Gandhi Road, Gangtok Gangtok Sikkim
There was a big colony of House Sparrows at Melli Bazar, South Sikkim in 1988 (strange because Salim Ali did not come across it in Sikkim during his surveys), while Eurasian Tree Sparrows were common higher up in Gangtok. I first saw House Sparrows in Gangtok in 1990. It was a pair on MG Road the heart of Gangtok above a photography shop called Panorama and commented to my husband Ganden that someone must have released them or they were escapes, as they were not supposed to occur here. Today one can see more of them living comfortably with the Tree Sparrows and I wonder if they are interbreeding as there was a big mixed flock in the STNM Hospital Complex, a stone's throw from MG Road. Some time back I observed House and Tree Sparrows at the VIP Colony gate, above Gangtok, at about 2000m. Sign of global warming? In the Forest Colony where I live, about a km from MG Rd, we also have Russet Sparrows. Ali Hussain had caught some in BNHS mist nets and we ringed them around 1996. That makes it three Sparrow species in Gangtok itself!
There was a big colony of House Sparrows at Melli Bazar, South Sikkim in 1988 (strange because Salim Ali did not come across it in Sikkim during his surveys), while Eurasian Tree Sparrows were common higher up in Gangtok. I first saw House Sparrows in Gangtok in 1990. It was a pair on MG Road the heart of Gangtok above a photography shop called Panorama and commented to my husband Ganden that someone must have released them or they were escapes, as they were not supposed to occur here. Today one can see more of them living comfortably with the Tree Sparrows and I wonder if they are interbreeding as there was a big mixed flock in the STNM Hospital Complex, a stone's throw from MG Road. Some time back I observed House and Tree Sparrows at the VIP Colony gate, above Gangtok, at about 2000m. Sign of global warming? In the Forest Colony where I live, about a km from MG Rd, we also have Russet Sparrows. Ali Hussain had caught some in BNHS mist nets and we ringed them around 1996. That makes it three Sparrow species in Gangtok itself!
