4. The Plan to Wipe Out These Birds Contributed to the Deaths of Tens of Millions
While it is true that sparrows eat grain and fruits, it is also true that they eat insects as well – a whole lot of insects. Especially locusts, whose chief predator, the one that keeps their population in check, happens to be sparrows. Without sparrows, China’s locust population exploded, and they fell upon the country’s crops in massive swarms that blanketed the sky and obscured the Sun. The locusts ate up far more of China’s crops than sparrows had ever done. Rather than increase crop yields, the extermination of sparrows led to a huge decline in China’s available rice. In 1960, Mao ordered the removal of sparrows from the “Four Pests”, and had them replaced with bed bugs.
By then, it was too late. The locusts ate up so much grain that catastrophe ensued. Between the huge insect swarms and the mismanagement, incompetence, and turmoil that accompanied the Great Leap Forward, the country was plunged into what came to be known as The Great Chinese Famine. By the time it was over, tens of millions – some estimates go as high as 55 million – had starved to death or perished amidst the chaos and hardships. Eventually, after it had all but wiped out China’s native population of sparrows, the Chinese government was forced to import 250,000 of the small birds from the Soviet Union to replenish its stocks.
