- Indian wildlife biologist Dr Purnima Devi Barman was recently awarded with Champions of the Earth award in the Entrepreneurial vision category , UN’s highest environmental honour.
- She is the founder of the Hargila Army and senior project manager of the Avifauna Research and Conservation Division, Aaranyak.
- She create and sell textiles with motifs of the bird, helping to raise awareness about the species while building their own financial independence.
Purnima Devi Barman:-
- Purnima Devi Barman has been working with local communities – women, specifically – in Assam for more than a decade now to conserve the greater adjutant stork, an endangered wetland bird whose numbers have been declining due to habitat destruction and cutting down of nesting trees. The entire team is “extremely honoured” to win the award.
- Barman won the award this year in the ‘Entrepreneurial Vision’ category, for her trail-blazing work in protecting the greater adjutant stork, called ‘hargila’ in Assamese. Hargilas are five-foot-tall birds that dwell in wetlands in some parts of southeast Asia including India and Cambodia.
- There are only 1,200-odd hargilas remaining in the world, as per a 2016 IUCN Red List update which lists the bird as ‘Endangered’. In India, hargilas are found in Assam and Bihar. Assam is home to the largest population – around 1,000 individuals – of these birds, according to Barman.