Environmental day

STROKE SISTER AND HER HARGILA ARMY




Purnima Devi Barman, 39, was doing research for her
PhD on the greater adjutant, one of the world’s rarest storks, at

Gauhati University in Guwahati, Assam. The conservation biologist

noticed that the number of the birds, which she had grown up seeing
flocking freely and fearlessly around her home in Pub Majir Gaon, a
village on the banks of the Brahmaputra River in the state of Assam,

had greatly diminished. At this crucial movement she decided to hold
on her PhD and to start a mission to keep alive these birds in their

habitat.

Adjutant storks are also known as Hargilas, or “bone swallowers” in

Assamese. They are a reviled species around Dadara, Pacharia and
Singimari villages in Assam’s Kamrup district. People squirm when

they talk about the gargantuan five-foot-tall, scruffy bird with spindly
legs and dull grey feathers that scavenges on rotting flesh and sullies

people’s homes with its odoriferous droppings. Considering the bird
ominous, villagers often chop down trees on which the storks nest, or

try to smoke them out. Once she also saw nine baby birds’ plop to the

ground when a villager felled an entire tree with many nesting storks,
When she tried to stop the villager, he became furious with her and
started arguing “how the bird was nothing more than a nuisance”. It is

precisely this attitude that has led to a precipitous decline in Hargila
numbers.


The stork is now endangered, according to the International Union for
Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species, with only

800 to 1,200 mature birds left in the world – most of them in Assam.

A large group, however, is still concentrated in Kamrup district in the
valley of the Brahmaputra River, about two hours from Assam’s

capital region, Guwahati, where Barman lives. Her research shows
that Kamrup serves as the location for more than 140 nests each year

and is possibly the largest nesting colony on the planet.

In the 19th century, the stork could be found across south and

southeast Asia – in Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Vietnam.
The northern plains of Cambodia hosted tiny populations, too. During

the 1800s, in West Bengal’s capital city of Kolkata (then known as
Calcutta), the bird became a cultural symbol adorning heritage

building as emblems.




However, the urbanization of rural India, resulting in the construction
of roads, buildings and mobile phone towers, has significantly shrunk

the wetlands where the storks thrive. With their habitats threatened,
the birds have been forced to migrate to human settlements where

they are regarded as vermin.

The villagers hated the bird because they were ignorant of its great

ecological significance. So, at community meetings, Purnima began to
explain that, like most scavengers, storks clean up the environment by

consuming decaying animal carcasses and maintain the food chain in
an ecosystem by regulating the number of smaller animals like
rodents and other pests.


At first, people laughed at her. They thought she was crazy to be
interested in conserving such an ugly bird. But slowly, change started

to creep in. In 2009, Aaranyak a, Guwahati-based non-profit
organization that works on nature conservation in northeast India,

helped her launch a formal community-based programme in Kamrup
district to protect the stork.


To involve more people to the campaign cooking competitions were
organised with talks about how essential the hargila is for the local

habitat. The bird was also made part of local celebrations where
women would rustle up traditional Assamese rice cakes.


Baby showers are organized for newborn Hargilas and theatre groups
put on plays with stork themes. Hargila puppets, crafted by

volunteers, are worn by the actors while they sing and dance to

generate awareness about the birds. Drawing competitions are held
for children merging environmental awareness with tradition and

culture.

The idea was to inculcate a sense of ownership and community pride

in the rare breed of stork. The work on behalf of the stork has been
honored with numerous awards including the London-based Whitley

Award – also known as the “Green Oscars” – in 2017. Slowly, efforts
to conserve the storks have borne fruit and stork nest numbers have

surged from just 27 to more than 210 in the past 13 years.

The “Hargila Army” – a battalion of 400 women who are actively

involved in the stork’s conservation. The women campaign and create
awareness about the storks, help rehabilitate injured birds that fall

from their nests and hand them over to the Assam State Zoo
authorities.


The army of women also keeps a strict vigil on the nests. Volunteers
keep watch every day from bamboo platforms that are 24m (80 feet)

tall and that have been constructed throughout the district. The
world’s first-ever artificial breeding platform where chick scan hatch

in safety was also built last year to address the problem of the birds’
shrinking habitat.


The mission had not only saved the Hargils but also opened the doors
to the village women in the field of business and entrepreneurship as a
part of making& selling products like masks, cloth bags, towels etc.

through the Hargila army network of NGOs. And through the Army’s

training, women have become empowered and independent.

However, by creating this new model for conservation based on social
change and empowerment rather than enforcement. She has launched

education modules and conducts regular awareness programmes for
target groups such as nest tree owners, women, schoolchildren, youth

groups, community leaders, local police and the forestry department
to encourage them all to protect the bird.


A scholarship programme has been launched through local schools for
children of tree owners who excel academically and display initiative

in working for the conservation of the hargila. Tree owners are
provided with recognition certificates for protecting trees and birds at

ceremonies during special public events known as “felicitation

events”. Indeed, Kamrup today embodies an unusual conservation

success story, turn in an endangered species into a symbol of pride.





























WORLD ENVIRONMENTAL DAY




World Environment Day is celebrated

annually on 5 June and is the United Nations’


principal vehicle for encouraging awareness


and action for the protection of the


environment.



The theme of this year’s World Environment


Day is Ecosystem Restoration. Pakistan will


act as global host of the day. World


Environment Day 2021 will see the launch of


the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.The


purpose of World Environment Day is to


spread awareness about the threat to the


environment due to rising pollution levels and


climate change.

Only One Earth : World Environment



Day 2022


































The Government of the Sweden will

host World Environment Day 2022 in partnership with the UN
Environment Programme (UNEP). The year 2022 marks 50 years since
the first United Nations Conference on the Human Environment –

the 1972 Stockholm Conference that led to the creation of UNEP and
designating 5 June every year as World Environment Day. World

Environment Day 2022 will be held under the theme Only One
Earth, highlighting the need to live sustainably in harmony with

nature by bringing transformative changes – through policies and our
choices – towards cleaner, greener lifestyles. Only One Earth was the

motto for the 1972 Stockholm Conference; 50 years on, the motto holds
true - this planet is our only home, whose finite resources humanity must
safeguard.Minister for Environment and Climate and Deputy

Prime Minister of Sweden Per Bolund said: “As a proud host
of 2022 World Enviornmental Day Sweden themost

pressing environmental concerns, showcase our country’s initiatives
and the global efforts of addressing the climate and nature crises. We

invite the global community across the world to join in the important
discussions and celebrations.”


Thooja B Madhu


10A

WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY



World Environment Day (WED) is celebrated annually on 5 June.

World Environment Day was established in 1972 by the United Nations at the Stockholm Conference
on the Human Environment ( 5–16 June 1972), that had resulted from discussions on the integration
















of human interactions and the environment.Two years later, in 1974 the first WED was held with the
theme “Only One Earth”. Even though WED celebrations have been held annually since 1974, in
1987 the idea for rotating the center of these activities through selecting different host countries
began.The last year’s Environment Day(2021) was held by PAKISTAN under the theme ‘ECOSYSTEM
RESTORATION ’.



An Earth Anthem penned by poet Abhay K is sung to celebrate World Environment Day.

Our cosmic oasis, cosmic blue pearl

The most beautiful planet in the universe
All the continents and all the oceans

United we stand as flora and fauna

United we stand as species of one earth

Different cultures, beliefs and ways

We are humans, the earth is our home
All the people and the nations of the world

All for one and one for all

United we unfurl the blue marble flag.

The anthem was launched in June 2013 on the occasion of the World Environment Day by Kapil Sibal
and Shashi Tharoor, then Union Ministers of India, at a function organized by the Indian Council of
Cultural Relations in New Delhi. It is supported by the global organization Habitat For Humanity.



World Environment Day 2022 will be hosted by SWEDEN under the theme ‘ONLY ONE EARTH',
highlighting the need to live sustainably in harmony with nature by bringing transformative changes
– through policies and our choices – towards cleaner, greener lifestyles.

Karthik Asok. S
10-A















- Janaki Unnithan.S


(10 A)