Nagpur’s Captain Jack Sparrow: Retired Banker Builds Homes for Birds

(Image Source : Internet) 

Seated on a brown sofa in his Nagpur home, 70-year-old Ashok Tewani is hard at work. His table is a chaotic mix of glue sticks, scissors, rulers, and pens but from this mess emerges purpose. With each precise cut and careful fold, Tewani crafts birdhouses from cardboard boxes, a labour of love sparked by a mission: to help the city’s dwindling sparrow population find safe nesting spots.

 

Tewani's journey began in 2014, two years after his retirement from the Bank of India. While flipping through Twinkle Star, a children’s magazine, he stumbled upon an article on the declining number of sparrows in Nagpur. It struck a chord. “Sparrows today struggle to find places to build their nests,” he says. “That’s why I started making these boxes to give them a safe place to call home.”

 

The concern isn’t misplaced. A 2018 survey by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds revealed a sharp decline in sparrow populations across India. States like Andhra Pradesh have seen losses as high as 80%, while cities such as Thiruvananthapuram and Lucknow have reported near-total disappearance. Experts blame factors such as modern architecture, chemical fertilisers, and urban pollution for the birds’ decline.

 

What began with scrap materials has now turned into a full-fledged operation. Tewani has fine-tuned his design to standard 14x18 cm boxes, which he gets manufactured in bulk. Some birdhouses have multiple stories and entry holes, lasting up to eight years. Though he once distributed them for free, he now charges a modest ₹40 after realizing people valued them more when they paid for them.

 

Tewani’s dedication sees him crafting at least one birdhouse a day. “Seeing a pair of birds bring twigs to their new home just days after I installed the first box was magical,” he says. His proudest moment came when a woman bought 50 birdhouses at a local exhibition. With each box, Tewani is not just helping sparrows he's inspiring a city to care. In Nagpur, the birds have found their very own Captain Jack Sparrow.