Saving the amazing Bone Swallowers

Saving the amazing Bone Swallowers  Guwahati (Assam)
The Greater Adjutant storks ( Hargila or Bone Swallowers as they are called in Assam and West Bengal) are the world’s most endangered stork species. The greater adjutant is evaluated as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Loss of habitat through pollution and disturbance has caused a massive decline in the population of this species. The world population was estimated at less than 1,000 . Of these 600 are in Assam These imposing bird stands a stunning five feet tall with an eight-foot wingspan. Guwahati now has the largest concentration of Greater Adjutant Storks in the world, with the majority of them seen in the city’s garbage dumping site at Borbari.
Food : The Greater Adjutant has a wide and varied diet. It sweeps through water with its huge bill, scooping up fish, crustaceans, amphibians, insects and reptiles. The species is often seen at rubbish dumps or abattoirs where it will search out decaying food and carrion.
The pouch on their chest : A pendulous orange pouch dangles loosely from its neck.The pendant inflatable pouch connects to the air passages and is not connected to the digestive tract. The exact function is unknown, but it is not involved in food storage as was sometimes believed ( which along with their habit of scavenging for rotten meat in garbage dumps could have led to the name of Hargila or Bone Swallower).
Breeding: Colonies form at the beginning of the breeding season. Nests are platform-like structures built from bamboo stems and leaves. They are situated in large trees with few leaves. A clutch of between two to four eggs is laid, which hatch after 30 days.
Conservation efforts :
These big birds produce a huge amount of poop that originate from what they eat - dead or alive, including fish, amphibians, and reptiles had led to them being very unpopular with the villages where they usually nested. Villagers used to cutdown their roosting trees to get rid of this bird which made their homes dirty. No one used to care as these are not glamorous animals – till researcher Ms Purnima Burman stepped in to be their friend.
Burman started a campaign to change the view of the villagers through slide shows organized at local temples, getting villagers help in rescuing the injured birds, urging protection of the trees etc. Gradually the villagers , particularly the women started responding . They were proud, to learn that this very rare bird had chosen to breed only in their local villages.
The locals now call Barman “hargila baideo,” or hargila sister, after she organized and named the movement, now involving nearly 150 women. From 2010 onwards, a year after the programme began, villagers haven’t felled one nesting tree, determined not to let the greater adjutant storks go extinct.