In news: Indian wildlife biologist Dr Purnima Devi Barman has been honoured with the U.N. Environment Programme’s (UNEP) 2022 Champions of the Earth award in the Entrepreneurial Vision category.
About the award:
Established in 2005, it is U.N.’s highest environmental honour.
It is an annual award accorded for transformative action to prevent, halt and reverse ecosystem degradation.
In 2017, the program was expanded to include Young Champions of the Earth.
The initiative is run in partnership with the Covestro, a plastics company.
awarded every year to seven young environmentalists between ages 18 and 30
Dr. Purnima Devi Barman:
She leads the “Hargila Army“, an all-female grassroots conservation movement dedicated to protecting the Greater Adjutant Stork from extinction.
The birdGreater Adjutant Stork is the second-rarest stork species in the world, known locally as “hargila” in Assamese (meaning “bone swallower”).
Today the “Hargila Army” consists of over 10,000 women.
They protect nesting sites, rehabilitate injured storks which have fallen from their nests and arrange “baby showers” to celebrate the arrival of new-born chicks.
The women create and sell textiles with motifs of the bird, helping to raise awareness about the species while building their own financial independence.
Significance of her work:
Conflict between humans and wildlife can be resolved to the benefit of all.
Highlighting the damaging impact that the loss of wetlands has had on the species who feed and breed on them
