A CHINESE WAR AGAINST SPARROWS: AN UNEXPECTED CATASTROPHE

In 1958, the Chinese leader Mao Zedong ordered to eliminate all sparrows, because they ate too much grain. Then noone could guess that a war against a tiny bird would cause one of the worst catastrophes.

In the history of mankind there were many tragedies, but not all of them can be compared with that Chinese one.

 Mao Zedong ordered that all sparrows in the country had to be killed. He decided that the Chinese could live better without rats, mosquitoes, flies and sparrows. Mao believed that they had eaten too much grain in the fields. He belived that sparrows were an obstacle of economic development of the China.

The leader made an attempt to modernize and improve life in China, Mao undertook several mass campaigns. "Four Wreckers" was one of these projects, a part of a large plan for the modernization of the country in 1958- 1962.  Eliminating of sparrows was a part of this campaign.

The people were mobilized to destroy the birds. They beat the drums and waved flags to scare the birds off the landing, forcing them to fly until they died from exhaustion. The Chinese ruined the passerine nests and shot the sparrows in flight. As a result, these birds were on the brink of extinction in China. In some regions, they disappeared completely.

In total, hundreds of millions of birds were killed, and a year later there was an unexpected problem.

 Indeed, there was a slight increase in the yield of cereals, but the invasion of field insect pests began. Locusts, which were formerly eaten by sparrows, began to attack the harvest, because they had no fanger from sparrows any more.

 As it turned out, killing sparrows was counterproductive! They not only ate seeds of cereals, but also insects that hurted the harvest!

The hordes of locusts flew to the fields and ate everything in their path. Harvest of grain in most rural areas was eaten fully! Millions of Chinese began to die from hunger. According to various estimates, 20- 45 million people were killed as a result of famine caused by economic mismanagement and environmental catastrophe.

To remedy the situation, the Chinese immediately bought grain abroad, and even ordered sparrows from the USSR and Canada. Sparrows were pardoned and officially called "useful"!

Nature is harmonious and perfect. Until the person interferes ...