Giving Compass' Take:
- Geetanjali Krishna spotlights Dr. Purnima Devi Barman and her focus on the conservation of the greater adjutant stork in the northeast Indian wetlands.
- How can networks like the one created by Dr. Purnima Devi Barman be instrumental in conserving endangered species such as the greater adjutant stork and protecting broader ecosystem health?
- Learn more about key climate justice issues and how you can help.
- Search our Guide to Good for nonprofits focused on climate justice in your area.
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At a landfill on Majuli, which is said by many to be the world’s largest riverine island, a cluster of ungainly birds peck at garbage. Here, on the river Brahmaputra in the northeast Indian state of Assam, these animals stand over four and a half feet tall, bald and with a strange orange pouch on their necks. And while it’s fair to say they would probably never win an avian beauty contest, the greater adjutant storks (Leptoptilos dubius) play a crucial role in conservation in the northeast Indian wetlands of Assam by consuming decaying organic matter, helping in nutrient recycling and promoting ecosystem health.
She’s right. Few birds are as celebrated or as integrated into Assamese life today as the greater adjutant stork. It wasn’t always this way, but is so now due to conservation in the northeast Indian wetlands. Once a thriving species, they used to live in large colonies across Assam. By the nineties, however, deforestation of the tall trees in which they nested, and a growing fear of the big, flesh-eating birds, saw the storks — once so prominent that they featured on the port city Calcutta’s (now Kolkata’s) coat of arms — practically disappear from the landscape.
“We used to chase them away, pelt them with stones […] everyone thought they would bring bad luck!” says 37-year-old Pratima Kalita Rajbongshi, a subsistence farmer, regarding the stork conservation efforts in the northeast Indian wetlands.
But in 2007, they found an unlikely protector in a young PhD student, Purnima Devi Barman. When her research revealed that greater adjutant storks were at the edge of oblivion, with only 800 to 1,200 adult birds left globally, she was alarmed.
The issue she faced is that no one she encountered liked greater adjutant storks, an obstacle to conservation in the northeast Indian wetlands of Assam. The Assamese call them hargila, which means “bone swallower” in the local language. They are scavengers and tend to nest in colonies on top of trees, and wherever they nest, the ground underneath becomes a stinky mess of bones and poop. Locals regarded the presence of this scavenger bird as a curse, often cutting down their nesting trees and chasing the storks away.
Read the full article about the conservation of the greater adjutant stork by Geetanjali Krishna at Reasons to Be Cheerful.