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Saving the Hargila
Connecting an endangered stork to local culture.
© Gerrit Vyn/Cornell
Conservation biologist Purnima Devi Barman returned to Assam, India, where she grew up, to work with the highly endangered Greater Adjutant stork. The species nests in populated areas of Assam, where it’s known as Hargila. Because they’re scavengers, some see Hargila as unclean and remove trees where they nest. Purnima has found creative ways to connect Hargila to people’s daily lives and culture in Assam. Learn more in the documentary, Hargila, from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
BirdNote®
Saving the Hargila
Adapted from Hargila documentary by Conor Gearin
This is BirdNote.
[Hargila clacking their bills and calling]
Conservation biologist Purnima Devi Barman returned to Assam, India, where she grew up, to work with a highly endangered bird, the Greater Adjutant stork. The species nests in populated areas of Assam, where it’s known as Hargila. Because they’re scavengers, some see Hargila as unclean and remove trees where they nest. Purnima once saw a man cutting down one of these trees and felt helpless to stop him.
Purnima Devi Barman: And so from that day my mission started and I wanted to work more and more to save Hargila from extinction, to save their habitat, to educate people. So I tried to bring the bird into their tradition, into their cultures.
Purnima found creative ways to bring the stork into the daily lives of local women. She held a baby shower for the storks to celebrate their breeding season.
Purnima Devi Barman: And then we celebrated with the people, the women of the village together, like stork baby shower, like exactly the way we do for the Assamese women when they are expecting mothers. Then I don't need to tell them to not cut down the trees; then they came to know that we have to protect the trees.
[Singing begins]
With help from the local people, the Hargila population has grown. You can see these massive, prehistoric-looking birds in a documentary called Hargila produced by Gerrit Vyn and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Find a link on our website, BirdNote DOT org. I’m Mark Bramhill.
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Senior Producer: Mark Bramhill
Producer: Sam Johnson
Managing Editor: Jazzi Johnson
Content Director: Jonese Franklin
Field recordings and interview from Hargila documentary, used with permission.
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2022 BirdNote January 2022/2025 Narrator: Mark Bramhill
ID# hargila-01-2022-01-12 hargila-1
Conor Gearin
Writer