This innovation can now be scaled up to save many threatened large bird species whose nesting trees are being lost in Assam and elsewhere in the country.ДЄnother experiment initiated by Purnima was to train the community women in weaving the motif of the Adjutant Storks on traditional handloom items such as the iconic gamcha (scarf). A pair of storks use artificial bamboo nesting platforms created by Purnima Devi Barman in Dadara. In Guwahati, as wetlands disappear, Greater Adjutant Storks choose to nest on tree canopies near villages. Purnima is now extending her research in precisely this direction, by exploring the possibility of scaling up the efficacy of nesting platforms for conservation. This experiment may prove to be a long-term answer to saving many threatened large bird species that suffer from the destruction of nesting trees. And in the process of filming, we received the news that one nesting pair had started using the platform to incubate their eggs! The entire village gathered to cut a birthday cake to celebrate the arrival of the baby storks! It was the first time that an artificial nesting platform of this kind worked in India for an endangered bird. One of the experiments initiated by Purnima was to create artificial nesting platforms made of bamboo. Her friendships with women helped her to gain access to the private yards where the birds were nesting. She first enlisted women, convincing them of the importance of protecting these birds and their role in the ecosystem. She began focussing on changing community attitudes. Purnima knew that she had to change the villagersвЂ™ perception of the species and enlist them in conservation efforts. Several were cut down by the community, effectively wiping out the nesting spaces. In Dadara, many of the nesting trees for the stork are found in the middle of the village. The birds often feed near wetlands, which over the years, have turned into massive garbage dumps for Guwahati city.ДЄpart from massive deforestation, which has led to the loss of nesting trees, a major threat to the species is the huge dumping of toxic garbage in their feeding grounds, which could potentially cause fatalities from disease-causing pathogens.

The birds were abandoning their historic nesting grounds in rural wetlands and choosing instead to nest on treetops near villages. While studying them for her doctoral research at the Guwahati University, Barman noticed a disturbing trend. We were commissioned by the Public Service Broadcasting Trust to make a film on Purnima Devi BarmanвЂ™s journey to save the Greater Adjutant Stork вЂ“ we called the birds the вЂHargila ArmyвЂ™. My brother and I are keen to document the lesser-known species of India. Improper waste management that leads to an influx of garbage being dumped into wetlands and felling of nesting trees have relegated it from being one of the most commonly seen storks to the rarest. In the 1990s, its population was found to be no more than 1,000 individuals, making it one of the stork species closest to extinction. With a vocalisation that is far from melodious (it emits more of a grunt), an appearance that can be likened to a wizened old man, and an awkward gait that inspired its military name, the species has been hastily deemed вЂuglyвЂ™, leading to an oversight in conservation efforts. The global ecocide in the following century that resulted in the destruction of their wetland habitats across Asia led to their rapid endangerment. In the 19thcentury, huge flocks of the birds, numbering to hundreds of thousands of individuals, were known to congregate. They also help clean up the environment by eating decaying animal carcasses, thus controlling the spread of diseases among human communities. Greater Adjutants are great pest controllers, keeping the populations of smaller animals like rats and other pests to a minimum. These storks have a distinctive light orange sac dangling from their necks, which turns a deep orange and red during the breeding season.

Once found across South and Southeast Asia (from Pakistan to Borneo), today, the Greater Adjutant Stork is only found in Assam and Bihar, with smaller populations recorded in Cambodia.

Stork baby movie