These are numbers which are much closer to each other and may offer us a tool, at least in urban India. While actual data for more areas will take effort and time to generate, it seems plausible that there is 1 crow to every human is city areas of India. We need to pick a number here as a yardstick to move on with our exercise. At this stage there is no point in refining this number further as it is a very crude number and does not take into account variables like habitat, food habits and hygiene of citizens, efficiency of garbage handling, alternate food sources etc.
The idea here is to try and look at the big picture and get a sense of scale. Population estimate. Now that we have a preliminary index, we can move forward to the next steps. The first of which is to determine the urban crow population in India. India's urban population is estimated at million as at With one crow needing 15 humans to support it, the estimated crow population is then 1,91,00, or 19 million in urban areas.
In rural areas, the population density of crows is lower and there is less crow-human dependency from waste creation. This is partly because organic solid waste is much less, and much of the stuff that we can't consume has other takers like farm animals.
Not the entire non-urban area is agricultural, and at the same time there are large tracts which do not have crow populations despite human presence. Again this is a unverified assumption and is based largely on density differences observed in one study. India's rural population was mn in Based on that number the rural crow population across the country should be in the region of 1,50,00, crows or 15 million rural crows, giving us a grand total of 34 million crows in the country.
Now that we have a derived estimate of the strength of the House Crow in India, the rest is easy. Let us first establish how much solid waste our crows consume on a daily basis.
The calculations are different for rural and urban crows. The urban crows almost entirely live off refuse, the rural ones possibly have a much more variable diet. Based on our earlier estimate of daily consumption, an adult crow will consume g daily. The calculations are as under:. So total garbage cleared by crows is:. Here is where we drop the rural crows from our exercise. Much of rural India does not have Municipal services and there is no significant cost-saving due to the crow's presence.
In fact it is very likely that the damage to agriculture and farming is as significant as any environmental costs the crow may save. Contribution of urban crows. Urban solid waste management costs anywhere between Rs. Applying a rate of Rs 3,, the total amount of money that is saved by the House Crow annually in urban areas of India in Municipal Solid Waste management cost is estimated to be [11,50,x] Rs ,00,00, or Rs.
As I said at the beginning, this is not a scholarly article based on accepted statistical measurement or scientific data. It examines possibilities and plausible estimates based on available data from some areas The purpose is to encourage thinking and raise questions, and to look at the House Crow with less than hate-filled eyes. After all, higher Municipal taxes are not exactly what you may want to trade off in exchange for a mischievous native garbage destroyer! Acknowledgements and r eferences.
Many thanks to Arka Sarkar and K. Gopi Sundar for checking the draft for logical inaccuracies and suggesting changes. They are in no way responsible for the contents of this blog entry. House Crow Monitor. Global Invasive Species Database - Corvus splendens bird. Familiar Birds - American Crow. Behavioral Ecology - False feeding ; Daniela Canestrari et al Optimization model for integrated municipal solid waste management in Mumbai, India by Sarika Rathi pdf. Assimilation efficiency in birds: A function of taxon or food type?
Animal weights and their food and water requirements - Ministry of Environment British Coloumbia. Results of crow count at birdsofbombay yahoo group. Mortality rates and survival of birds - D B Botkin et. Thank you for such a clear and logical presentation in making a case for the humble house crow. There is much to be learned from and about this intelligent, if cantankerous, bird!
Labels: Corvus splendens , crow count India , crow saves money , House Crow , house crow garbage cleaning , India , role of house crow , waste disposal India.
Anonymous August 24, at PM. Poonam Kurani August 25, at PM. Anonymous August 26, at PM. Dhaval Momaya August 27, at PM. Anonymous January 16, at PM. Anonymous July 1, at PM. Newer Post Older Post Home. Crows have an important place in Indian society. We say it is lucky when they shit on us; we feed them to please the dead. In Mumbai, it is a luxury. Recently, a crow sitting in between six others, in crammed fashion on a cable wire, inspired one of our posts.
Surprisingly, it was the first one to sit there; others hijacked its space. The three are contemplating their next post. Narang says, "We have Aamir Khan on our mind, but we are not sure how tolerant or intolerant our viewers are.
But then, we are talking crows. Subscribe to Notifications. Black crows have inflicted many wounds on this white crow. It will take some time to heal these wounds. Mumbai News : Massive fire breaks out in plastic godown in Malad West. Bombay High Court asks Thackeray government why they need central approval for door to door vaccination.
Maharashtra Rains : Many places flooded, houses submerged, passengers stranded. Home Trending Have you ever seen a White Crow? Yes, a White Crow has been spotted in Mumbai. Marathi Hindi English. Have you ever seen a White Crow? Yes, a White Crow has been spotted in Mumbai Trending. On Jun 30, Similar News.
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