Mumbai, Sep 17 - Wake up in the morning and miss the chirp of the house sparrow? The Indian government wants to know where the little birds have gone and have roped in Time magazine's Hero of the Environment-2008 Mohammed Dilawar to find out.

Nearly a year after Nashik naturalist Dilawar became a Time magazine Hero for saving the common house sparrow, India's ministry of environment and forests has woken up to the need for conserving the bird.

'The centre has recently sanctioned a three-year project to investigate the causes leading to the decline of the house sparrow (Passer Domesticus) in urban areas of India,' an excited Dilawar, 29, told IANS here.

To be headed by him, the project was awarded to the Bombay Natural History Society and will be the first ever study dedicated to monitoring the house sparrow population in India which has been steadily declining in cities over the past few years.

He said in India there is complete lack of basic information on the urban house sparrow population like on its habitat, factors affecting its breeding and survival, and social impact of urbanisation leading to their decline.

Dilawar plans to tackle these objectives scientifically and submit recommendations to the centre.

He said the decline in the house sparrow population in Britain and Western Europe has been widely recognised and taken very seriously. The humble house sparrows are nature's bio-indicators and enjoy a historical relationship with humans for thousands of years.

In the past five years, Dilawar has almost single-handedly struggled to create awareness about conserving the common sparrow, now facing a severe threat from humans.

Based in the heart of India's wine country, Nashik in northwest Maharashtra, Dilawar leads by example - he tends to over 150 sparrows daily, giving them food and water, as the bird's natural food resources are being eaten away by massive urbanisation.

'The common sparrow is under attack from many quarters. Hundreds of trees and bushes are being cleared for big buildings, open spaces are being concretised and thousands of mobile phone communication towers are being erected in cities, towns and villages.