The most massive destruction of sparrows

The most massive destruction of sparrows in human history took place in China in the late 50s, as part of the agricultural reform organized by Mao Zedong. The great helmsman called on all the inhabitants of China, from small to large, to destroy the four main pests: sparrows, rats, flies and mosquitoes.

The theory of The" great leap "(as the Chinese authorities called the modernization of industry and economic development, including agriculture) suggested that the destruction of sparrows, which according to the" far-sighted " politicians of that time were the main eaters of grain crops, will lead to the onset of the Golden age for the entire peasantry in China.

The extermination of sparrows in China began under the cries of "long live the great Mao" and with waving rags fixed on long poles. In parks, on the streets and roofs homes people (citizens and peasants, schoolchildren and old men, men and women) shouted, whistled, waved rags, pounded on pans, in General, did all, to sparrows as can be longer were in the air.

The expectation is that the sparrows without rest can stay in the air for more than fifteen minutes, true. Birds exhausted by long stay in the air and not an opportunity to land somewhere began to fall literally from the sky. Those who were not killed by the impact with the ground finished with anything. Birds who took refuge in the tree and did not react to the cries of the crowd because of fatigue got a sniper shot.

In the active phase this madness lasted from March to November 1958. During this time in China about two billion sparrows were destroyed.

The Chinese did not rejoice for long. If in the first year after the mass murder of sparrows in China was recorded quite a good harvest, the next season as a result of bred locusts and caterpillars that ate all the shoots in the country famine.

The short-sighted policy of China's leadership to destroy sparrows cost the lives of thirty million Chinese. As a result, it was found to be erroneous. To restore the imbalance and restore the population of sparrows they had cars imported from the USSR.