GUWAHATI, March 31 – Disappearance of the full-grown tall nesting and roosting trees such as Kadam, Simul and Satiana (Devil tree) etc from the vital nesting sites, has been posing a serious threat to the adjutant stork species, said Dr PK Saikia of the Gauhati University (GU) Zoology Department. Adjutant storks, particularly the greater adjutant stork or hargila, are the only surviving largest wetland bird species on the earth. The largest colonies of the species in countries like Burma (Myanmar), Vietnam and Sundarban etc places have completely disappeared. But following identification of the largest existing breeding pairs during 1989 from Assam, this State became the only stronghold for the conservation of this species of bird, Saikia said.
The redeeming feature today is that several agencies, — academic and voluntary, in the State are now engaged in the conservation of the species. Popular support to such efforts may strengthen the campaign to conserve the species in an effective manner. The completion of eco-biological research works of the species by Dr Saikia in 1996 and Dr Hillol Jyoti Singha, Lecturer, Bongaigaon College in 2000, provided a bounty of information for the conservation of the species.
Dr Saikia, a Reader of Animal Ecology and Wildlife Biology Lab, GU, located the first nesting site comprising at least 40 nests at Doulasal in Nalbari district and subsequently identified 11 nesting sites in the Brahmaputra Valley with 140 nests in total. Dr Saikia said that the GU Animal Ecology and Wildlife Biology Lab carried out quite a few conservation and research works of the species since 1989 under the guidance of Prof PC Bhattahcharjee. The projects have been funded by the CSIR (New Delhi), World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-India), State Forest Department, World Conservation Society (WCN) and also the individuals concerned in the US Fish and Wildlife Service and Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), Saikia said.
Since 1997 onwards, various NGOs of the State are also conducting awareness campaigns to protect the species. But for the permanent conservation of Greater Adjutant Stork, there is a need for setting up permanent colonies artificially outside the protected areas, which are selected logically for nest construction. Such endeavours should be collaborated with by the State Forest Department and the researchers on the species should be involved in the endeavours for technical support, Saikia said.
Meanwhile a report of the Aranyak, an NGO working in the field of wildlife conservation, has stated that in collaboration with the Nagaon-based Green Guard Nature Organisation, it had been executing a rescue and rehabilitation project of Greater Adjutant Storks’ fallen chicks since 2001.
As many as 10 fallen chicks of the species were rescued and rehabilitated during the year 2002-2003. The US Fish and Wildlife Service had supported the project for three years since 2001. The continuation of the project will help rescue and rehabilitate more fallen chicks, the report said.
The NGO has also undertaken extensive awareness drives to make the people aware of the need to conserve the bird species. It has also been motivating the owners of the nesting trees for the protection of the trees. Such owners have been felicitated with citations and traditional goodies in presence of senior Forest and district administration officials. The campaign is supported by the BNHS, the report said and appealed for donations and grants in kind for the continuation of the campaign.
City-based NGO Early Birds has also been undertaking a campaign to rescue the injured Adjutant Storks and to prevent the incidents of miscreants’ attack on the endangered bird species in the city’s Ulubari area. It has been engaged in an awareness programme too and has even filed criminal cases with the city police to discourage the miscreants who pounce upon the helpless bird for its meat Dr Saikia said that the changed scenario of rapid urbanisation has made the garbage centres within a range of three kilometres of aerial distance from the newly created nesting sites of the species almost indispensable.
The garbage centres’ thrown- away animal parts of the city’s/ towns’ slaughterhouses as well as the productive wetlands’ live animal fauna are the major supplementary food for the nestlings as well as the adult storks during the breeding season. Besides, newly fledged storks fly to the garbage dumps to scavenge when the wetlands turn into crash yield of fish etc to meet the food demand, said Dr Saikia.