This bird is ugly and bald, but more than 10,000 women are protecting it

This bird is "ugly" and bald, but more than 10,000 women are protecting it. Recently, an Indian biologist named Purnima Devi Barman won the 2022 "Earth Champion Award" , the highest environmental honor awarded by the United Nations.

The Champions of the Earth Award recognizes those who have taken transformative action to prevent, halt and reverse ecosystem degradation. According to the achievement category, Barman (front in the picture) received the Business Vision Award, wearing a large marabou hat｜@Purnima Devi Barman/Facebook

Barman has been committed to protecting the greater adjutant stork. The conservation organization she leads is composed entirely of women with no professional background . Team members create and sell textiles with greater adjutant stork patterns, allowing people to re-recognize this prejudiced bird while also achieving financial independence.

How did a wildlife biologist, a hated endangered bird species, and an all-female grassroots organization achieve a world where both people and birds benefit?

The endangered but hated stork

The bird protagonist in the story is the Greater Adjutant (Leptoptilos dubius). They are about 1.5 meters tall, have a pair of sharp blue eyes, a thin yellow neck, most of them are bald (some still have a few black hairs), and have a stiff gait like a soldier. Their English name "greater adjutant" means "adjutant", which comes from their strange gait.

Of the 20 or so stork species, the greater adjutant is one of the rarest and most endangered. | Carla Rhodes

However, Indians called them "hargila", which means bone eaters, because they feed on carrion and viscera.

The characteristics of scavengers, their unlovable appearance and their smelly feces make the locals think that the adjutant storks are unclean, carry bad luck and disease, and are a bad omen . Therefore, people often drive them away and cut down the trees where they build nests.

Adjutant storks often visit landfills, where they eat plastic and toxic materials | Carla Rhodes

In fact, the adjutant stork was not born so tragic, they also had a glorious period. In Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal, India, the adjutant stork is considered an efficient scavenger and is protected , probably because it can quickly eat human corpses on the street. In 1896, they even appeared on the emblem of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

But half a century later, this bird had disappeared from Kolkata, and the government wanted to get rid of its colonial color, so the newly designed emblem no longer included the image of the great adjutant stork.

On the emblem, there are two large storks holding snakes on the left and right｜Wikimedia commons

The number of adjutant storks has also dropped significantly in Kolkata and other areas. With the acceleration of urbanization, the wetlands on which adjutant storks depend for survival have been occupied or polluted . In addition, soldiers once hunted and even killed adjutant storks for fun, and the adjutant storks have gradually disappeared from people's sight.

The Greater Adjutant Stork was listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in 2016. Today, there are fewer than 1,200 Greater Adjutant Storks left in the world, less than 1% of the population a century ago.

However, even though their numbers are small, the Greater Adjutant Stork's own peculiarities and the local people's dislike for them still mean that they cannot receive adequate protection.

From my grandmother's rice fields

But Bauman was deeply attracted to the greater marabou stork.

At the age of five, Baman was sent to live with her grandmother. Her grandmother often took her to nearby rice fields and wetlands to identify birds and taught her to sing to egrets and storks. From then on, Baman developed an attachment to nature and birds, and later studied ecology and wildlife biology.

In college, professors mentioned the endangered adjutant stork, but Barman had never seen the bird in her grandmother's rice fields. At the time, she was volunteering at the nonprofit animal protection organization Aaranyak and found that people's interest was limited to attractive species such as rhinos or tigers . They appeared on social media, on clothes, and in advertisements, gaining more attention and funding. Animals that were not so cute and interesting, such as the adjutant stork, could not get everyone's favor, even though their numbers were even rarer.

In 2017, Barman and her team built this bamboo platform for the adjutant storks to incubate their eggs. Every week, Barman climbs up the 24-meter-high bamboo ladder to observe the adjutant storks. ｜@Purnima Devi Barman/Facebook

These experiences were like seeds planted in Bauman's heart; until 2007, Bauman's life trajectory was completely changed.

At the time, Barman was doing field research for her doctoral dissertation. On this day, she saw a villager cut down a tree where nine adjutant storks had built their nests. The chicks fell to the ground one by one, and several of them died on the spot . Although she was able to save the surviving chicks, she was unable to convince the angry villagers. They felt that the adjutant storks were polluting the environment and that the trees had to be cut down.

Since then, Barman has found something more important than completing her doctorate - turning people's hatred of the adjutant stork into friendship . She wants to convince the villagers that the adjutant stork is a scavenger for humans, contributing to environmental hygiene and disease control, and should not be harmed.

When women take part in ecological conservation activities

However, Barman could hardly change the public's impression on his own.

Her local campaign to promote the Greater Adjutant Stork met with much cynicism, until she was at a traditional baby shower in a village when she realized the connection between pregnant women and mothers, and the Greater Adjutant Stork.

She began holding baby showers for the greater adjutant storks to connect bird motherhood with human motherhood and to try to get more women to come forward and protect the greater adjutant storks.

On the one hand, this is because Barman hopes that education can start from home, that is, from the mother . On the other hand, Barman believes that the only way to make the villagers accept the great adjutant stork is to integrate it into the local culture , and women are the main force in local festivals and various ceremonies.

So she attended weekly ceremonies at a local temple and, with the women’s permission, showed slides about the greater adjutant stork’s importance to the local ecosystem. She also hosted cooking competitions for the women, during which she promoted the greater adjutant stork.

Barman gradually gained the support of many women and established an all-female organization - Hargila Army.

Barman has purchased looms for members of the Hargila Army to produce garments, saris and a traditional fabric called gamosa with adjutant patterns , which not only brings the adjutant closer to the local community but also helps local women find more ways to make a living.

Fabric with a large marabou pattern | @Purnima Devi Barman/Facebook

The women who participated in the activities were gradually able to earn a regular income. During the epidemic, they also made thousands of masks, which were quickly sold out. Currently, the average monthly income of women from textile work is 6,000 to 7,000 rupees (equivalent to RMB 500 to 600).

Women are making cotton bags with Greater Adjutant Stork patterns to raise awareness of the Greater Adjutant Stork and to combat single-use plastics | Carla Rhodes

The economic rewards have improved the livelihoods of the women and helped spread the stork further and further . Currently, the Hargila Army has about 10,000 members in Assam, who organize various awareness programs in schools and other public places.

For example, at a wedding, a pattern with a stork theme can be painted.

Through baby showers and weddings, a love of the Greater Adjutant Stork has become part of everyday life | Carla Rhodes

The children received a coloring page with a large marabou stork to paint on.

Carla Rhodes

Children playing in large marabou hats｜Carla Rhodes

Once, when she saw a little girl wearing a marabou costume at a costume party, Barman cried with joy. Her efforts over more than ten years have not been in vain, and people have become accustomed to the presence of marabou in their lives.

A peaceful world with one man and one bird

The Hargila Army is not only committed to making the locals accept the Greater Adjutant Stork, but their more important goal is to protect the trees where the Greater Adjutant Storks build their nests and rescue fallen chicks .

In 2017, Barman and her team built bamboo incubation platforms for the adjutant storks to incubate their eggs. A few years later, the first batch of adjutant storks chicks were born.

The Hargila Army has planted 45,000 saplings in areas where the storks often move so that they have trees to build nests, and they will plant 60,000 trees next year. They also regularly clean up river banks and wetlands to reduce river pollution.

A net is placed under the tree where the great marabou stork builds its nest to catch the fallen great marabou chicks. The picture shows Barman checking whether there are chicks｜Carla Rhodes

Since Barman started her conservation project, the number of nests in the villages of Dadala, Pacharia and Singhmari in Kamrup district has increased from 28 to more than 250 , making it the world's largest breeding ground for greater adjutant storks.

The area has also become famous for its conservation activities for the Greater Adjutant Stork. Famous movie stars have even come to the village to participate in activities, which has made the villagers feel that protecting the Greater Adjutant Stork is a noble cause.

Photo of actresses participating in the event and local villagers｜Conservation initiatives for Greater Adjutant Stork in Assam, India

In 2017, Baman won the Wheatley Award, known as the "Green Oscar", and she donated all the prize money to the conservation of the greater adjutant stork.

At first, Barman's family did not support their daughter's conservation activities and hoped that she would find a good job. Barman's husband is also a wildlife biologist, and they did not want Barman to climb up and down the bamboo platform more than 20 meters high.

But Barman knew what his mission was.

After winning the award, Barman has more say in government cooperation. The United Nations' "Earth Champion Award" will also help her continue to promote conservation work and make the Hargila Army stronger.

Today, villagers call Baman hargila baido, which means the adjutant stork's sister . In this story, the adjutant stork has a safer space to grow, countless women have joined conservation activities, and people's hatred has turned into kindness. This may be a small miracle in the world today.

References

[1] Champions of the Earth Award https://www.unep.org/championsofearth/en/laureates/2022/punimadeweibamanboshi?%2Flaureates%2F2022%2Fdr-purnima-devi-barman=

[2]India's Purnima Devi Barman Is One of UNEP's 'Champions of the Earth' for 2022 https://thewire.in/environment/india-purnima-devi-burman-unep-award-hargila-conservation

[3]Dr Purnima Devi Barman aka 'Stork Sister': Pioneering A Community-Conservation Movement https://feminisminindia.com/2022/01/03/journey-dr-purnima-devi-barman-aka-stork-sister/

[4] Who is Purnima Devi Barman, honored with UN's highest environmental award? https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/purnima-devi-barman-honoured-uns-highest-environmental-award-unep-8284323/

[5]How One Woman With a Special Plan Saved Assam's 'Hargila' Storks From Extinction https://www.thebetterindia.com/190470/assam-stork-hargila-visit-conservation-rescue-save-barman/

[6] Assam Conservationist Purnima Barman Has Won The 'Green Oscars' https://www.huffpost.com/archive/in/entry/assam-conservationist-purnima-barman-has-won-the-green-oscars_in_5c11f450e4b0295df1fa52e3

[7] A Biologist, an Outlandish Stork and the Army of Women Trying to Save It https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/29/travel/india-greater-adjutant-stork.html

[8] Why we don't need pandas. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/why-we-done28099t-need-pandas/?xid=PS_smithsonian

[9] Harliga Army https://www.pashoopakshee.com/hargila-army

[10] Greater adjutant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_adjutant

[11] Leptoptilos dubius greater adjutant https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Leptoptilos_dubius/

[12] Saving the greater adjutant stork from extinction https://frontline.thehindu.com/environment/wild-life/photo-essay-saving-the-greater-adjutant-stork-from-extinction/article38197487.ece

[13]Conservation initiatives for Greater Adjutant Stork in Assam, India https://www.conservationleadershipprogramme.org/media/2014/11/Final-Report_Greater-Adjutant_India_2009.pdf

Author: Small Towel

Editor: Mai Mai

This article comes from the Species Calendar, welcome to forward

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