Why did the Chinese exterminate all the sparrows in 1957? How Nature Punished Them for It
As part of the Great Leap Forward program, the next congress of the Communist Party of China in the winter of 1957 put forward a proposal to launch a large-scale campaign to exterminate sparrows. This initiative was made by Zhou Jian, Vice Minister of Education. He believed that if rats and sparrows were wiped off the face of the country, China’s agriculture would enter an era of unprecedented growth and prosperity. To top it all off, there was another brilliant argument: the Chinese are malnourished because voracious birds “eat them in the fields.”
Zedong agreed at once. Remembering his childhood in the village, he was well aware of how much pests bother the peasants. He gladly signed the edict in pursuance of which the Chinese rushed to fight the culprits of all their misfortunes.
Flies and mosquitoes, and even more so rats, did not want to give up without a fight. Rodents, which can survive in any adverse conditions, even in a nuclear winter, quickly replenished their population after losses inflicted by humans. The insects did not even notice that the bipeds had declared war on them. Therefore, sparrows were better suited as scapegoats than others.
At first, small birds were baited and caught by setting snares on them. These methods did not produce the results that the Chinese had hoped for. Then they decided to “starve” them. The fact is that a sparrow cannot stay in the air for more than 15 minutes. As soon as the bird came into sight of a man, woman or child, it was frightened, forcing it to take to the air. Everyone from young to old was engaged in this, and rags, pots, shouting and whistling were used to intimidate disgraced pests. The bird, not understanding the reason for such agility, flitted frightenedly from place to place until it fell exhausted to the ground. She was killed and taken to the general pile of the same poor fellows. As can be assumed, not only sparrows were affected, but also all small birds.
The people who were so enthusiastic about exterminating the hated feathered pests were even more inspired by the appeals of the publications, which regularly published gigantic mountains of dead birds on their pages. It got to the point that schoolchildren were deliberately removed from classes, armed with slingshots, and sent on “hunting”. If the children found nests, they destroyed them. Pupils with special achievements were awarded diplomas.
During the first 3 days of the campaign, almost 1 million sparrows were destroyed. In a year of unequal struggle, 2 billion small birds have died in China. The country rejoiced and celebrated, because, unlike insects and rats, killing birds was much easier and more fun! Interestingly, neither scientists nor environmentalists objected to the extermination campaign, and those timid voices that so rarely spoke about the possible consequences were drowned in the abyss of immediate threats. No one wanted to be anti-party in China.
As 1958 drew to a close, the birds’ voices fell silent. All the small birds seemed to have been swept away by a hurricane. The Chinese people were triumphant and gasping for joy because it was their own achievement on the way to a bright and well-fed future under the strict guidance of the all-knowing Party. Now no one will eat them!
The Disastrous Consequences of Reckless Folly and the Triumphant Return of the Birds
In 1959, a “wingless” China reaped an unprecedented harvest. Even the few skeptics had to admit that the sparrow hunt had an effect. But it was hard not to note the fact that the number of insect pests has become incomparably more numerous! The Chinese were so dizzy from the bumper harvest that they decided not to pay attention to this annoying trifle.
It took another year to bring China to its senses and show it the consequences of reckless anti-sparrow measures in all their glory. Caterpillars, aphids and other pests began to multiply exponentially. All the crops were so densely sprinkled with them that it seemed as if the fields were covered with a swarming living blanket, behind which there were no sprouts to be seen.
China was taken aback and confused. Schoolchildren and factory workers began to be torn away from their direct duties again, but this time not to kill sparrows, but to do their work! The Chinese were sent en masse to the fields to collect caterpillars. However, this was of little use: the insects, sensing the onset of an era of prosperity without their natural enemies and with a rich food base, decided to reproduce uncontrollably. The harvest was devoured in the blink of an eye, and the pests began to invade the forests… While the locusts and caterpillars feasted, the Chinese began to starve.
Although the population was consoled on TV with fables about temporary difficulties, the call of an empty stomach was louder than any announcers. Mass deaths from starvation began. People boiled leather, ate locusts, and in some places there was cannibalism. The Chinese panicked, and so did the Party. When at least 30 million people died of starvation, it finally dawned on the leadership that all these events had begun after the eradication of the sparrows.
It was then that they decided to ask for help from the USSR and Canada. China prayerfully asked to send… Birds! The Soviet and Canadian leaders were surprised by the strange request, but responded to it. Whole wagons with sparrows came to the starving country.
It must be said that the visiting sparrows were fabulously lucky: in China they found such a chic table that they quickly ate up and became heavier. Well, the Chinese have learned their lesson well and now treat birds with trepidation.