Purnima Devi Barman Inspiring Story: The Woman Who Built Assam’s Hargila Army

Purnima Devi Barman: How a Rescue Became a Life’s Mission

A true motivational story of Purnima Devi Barman based on published interviews and conservation records.

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In 2007, Purnima Devi Barman received a call about a nesting tree being cut down in Assam. When she arrived, greater adjutant stork chicks were on the ground. Her questions met with anger from neighbours. Recalling the incident to TIME, she described thinking of her infant twin daughters as she looked at the vulnerable birds. She rescued the chicks. Source: TIME

But rescuing them left a larger problem unanswered: what would protect the next nesting tree?

The greater adjutant, known locally as hargila, was an unwelcome neighbour. Its droppings smelled. It brought animal remains into nesting trees beside people’s homes. Some residents considered it bad luck, and Barman faced ridicule for defending it. Protecting the birds meant finding a way to work with the families who lived beneath their nests. Source: UNEP

The wildlife biologist would go on to build the Hargila Army, bringing village women into a movement that connected conservation with livelihoods and local pride. Getting there meant delaying her doctoral thesis, listening to people’s objections and finding ways for others to participate. Source: UNEP

Her attachment to birds, however, began long before that rescue—with a five-year-old girl missing her family, and a grandmother who took her into Assam’s fields. Source: UNEP

Long before that happened, however, Barman had been a little girl following her grandmother through Assam’s fields, learning to notice the birds around her.

A Childhood Separation Led Her to the Birds

At five, Purnima went to live with her grandmother near the Brahmaputra River in Assam. Away from her parents and siblings, she was deeply upset. Her grandmother, a farmer, began taking her to nearby paddy fields and wetlands to comfort and distract her.

There, she introduced Purnima to the birds and taught her songs about them. She encouraged the little girl to sing for the egrets and storks. Remembering those outings years later, Barman told UNEP: “I fell in love with the birds.” Source: UNEP

Those childhood encounters gave her a connection she would carry into her education—and eventually into a difficult decision about her future.

She Put Her Doctoral Thesis on Hold to Protect Them

Purnima completed a master’s degree in zoology and began doctoral research on the greater adjutant stork. But the disappearance of birds she had known since childhood troubled her. She decided to delay her thesis and concentrate on keeping the species alive.

In 2007, she began her conservation campaign in Assam’s Kamrup district, focusing on villages where the storks gathered but were often unwelcome. Her scientific training helped her understand the species. Protecting it would also require understanding the people who wanted its nesting trees removed. Source: UNEP

The Hardest Part Was Persuading People to Care

For Purnima Devi Barman, protecting the greater adjutant stork meant asking villagers to keep nesting trees in their own gardens. The inconvenience was theirs to live with, long after a conservationist’s visit ended. UNEP’s account describes residents cutting trees to avoid the birds—and Barman being mocked for trying to protect them. Source: UNEP

She could explain why the species mattered. But that alone would not make a family welcome it.

Her response to the man cutting the nesting tree reveals how she approached this resistance. In a speech reported by The Better India, she recalled recognising that he did not understand the bird’s ecological importance. She then visited households to understand their unhappiness with its messy nesting habits. Source: The Better India

That approach left room for cooperation. The people living beside the birds would have to be part of their protection. The next challenge was finding a conversation they were willing to join.

How She Began Winning the Village Women’s Trust

Barman attended weekly temple gatherings and, with the women’s consent, began showing presentations about the hargila. She also organised cooking competitions where she could discuss the birds. Her conservation message entered places where women already met, talked and shared activities. Source: The Better India’s 2019 interview

A cooking competition might seem far removed from saving a species. Its value becomes clearer when we consider her immediate task: giving people a reason to participate in the conversation.

The bird also began appearing in folk songs and festival processions. These familiar forms gave villagers ways to include it in their own community life. The Better India reports that support grew particularly among women in Dadara and Pacharia. Source: The Better India

Those relationships would become the foundation of the Hargila Army. The work ahead would ask more of its members than listening: there were nesting sites to protect and fallen chicks to care for. Source: UNEP

The Hargila Army Turned Support into Daily Protection

In 2015, Purnima Devi Barman formally established the Hargila Army, according to The Better India’s published interview. The women who had joined the conservation effort now had a shared identity and practical responsibilities: organising support, attending meetings and helping develop livelihood opportunities for other women. Source: The Better India

Protecting the birds required attention between those gatherings. Storms and strong winds could send chicks tumbling from nests. Villagers placed protective nets beneath nesting sites, and residents began calling Barman when young birds fell. Rescued chicks were taken to the Assam State Zoo for rehabilitation before release. Source: The Better India

The work extended to the surrounding habitat. Women participated in tree planting and removed plastic from wetlands and riverbanks where the birds fed. Source: UNEP

For Barman, this meant something substantial was changing. A fallen chick could now prompt a call for help from within the community. More people were noticing when the birds needed protection—and taking responsibility for responding.

A Nesting Platform Failed Before a Chick Finally Took Flight

Winning support did not remove every practical obstacle. The birds still needed secure places to breed.

In 2017, Barman began building tall bamboo nesting platforms for greater adjutant storks. These structures offered an additional nesting option, but the first attempts needed improvement. Source: UNEP

The Better India’s 2019 account describes scepticism about the experiment, including from some conservationists. It also records problems with the platform’s initial design. Barman made adjustments. That year, the publication reported that a chick had hatched on the structure and successfully flown away. Source: The Better India

The outcome was modest enough to picture: one young bird leaving a nest that people had helped make possible.

For a project concerned with keeping chicks alive, that was a concrete success. The platform had needed revision, and the work had taken time. Now it had supported a bird through to flight.

Meanwhile, another change was becoming visible in village life: the hargila was appearing in things people made, wore and celebrated. Source: UNEP

The Bird They Once Rejected Became a Reason to Celebrate

Women began holding baby showers for hargila chicks, including celebrations at local temples. The arrival of young birds had become an occasion to gather and welcome new life. Source: Whitley Fund for Nature

For a bird once associated with bad luck, that was a remarkable change in its place among people.

The transformation also appeared at the loom. With weaving equipment and yarn supplied through Barman’s work, women made and sold textiles decorated with hargila motifs. Their existing skills became a way to earn income while making the bird more visible in everyday life. UNEP’s account connects this work with greater financial independence and pride in conservation. Source: UNEP

Barman had once faced ridicule for defending the storks. Now women were choosing to weave their likeness into cloth, celebrate their chicks and take responsibility for their nesting places.

The women’s own roles were changing, too. BirdLife International described local women travelling to other villages to raise awareness about the species. They had become people others could learn from. Source: BirdLife International

This was the community response Barman’s work had helped build: people with their own reasons to care, and the confidence to involve others.

Purnima Devi Barman’s Success Reached Beyond the Village

The changing relationship with the hargila was accompanied by measurable progress. In its May 2024 announcement, the Whitley Fund for Nature reported that greater adjutant numbers in Assam had risen from an estimated low of about 450 to more than 1,800. It also reported more than 500 fallen chicks rescued through the project. These figures describe results reported in 2024. Source: Whitley Fund for Nature

An important milestone had come the previous year. The greater adjutant moved from Endangered to Near Threatened in the 2023 IUCN Red List update, with BirdLife highlighting the contribution of community conservation. The species still needed protection, but its assessed extinction risk had improved. Source: BirdLife International

Recognition followed years of work.

• UNEP named Barman a Champion of the Earth in 2022.
• On 1 May 2024, she received the Whitley Gold Award in London. Sources: UNEP, Whitley Fund for Nature

Those honours recognised her leadership. The results also reflected the work of village women, tree owners, her colleagues at Aaranyak and other conservation partners.

The question raised by that early rescue who would protect the next nesting tree?—now had many more people willing to answer it.

What Her Journey Teaches Us About Creating Change

Barman’s story offers a demanding kind of encouragement. Caring started the work; listening, experimenting and sharing responsibility helped sustain it. These are lessons we can draw from her journey.

Understand what makes participation difficult

The families living beneath nesting trees had concerns that needed attention. Barman’s commitment to the birds did not make those concerns disappear.

When asking someone to support a change, find out what it will require of them. Extra work, expense or uncertainty may explain an objection. Understanding that burden gives you something specific to address.

Let an unsuccessful attempt change your approach

The bamboo nesting platform needed adjustments before it supported a chick through to flight. Its early problems gave the team something to investigate and improve.

When an effort stalls, ask which part needs changing. Seek informed feedback before repeating the same approach. Persistence becomes more useful when each attempt teaches you something.

Make room for other people’s strengths

The Hargila Army brought together different contributions: weaving, organising, protecting nests and caring for habitat. Participation did not depend on everyone becoming a wildlife biologist.

For a project in your own community, identify practical roles people can carry out reliably. Give them a voice in how the work happens. Shared responsibility gives an effort a better chance of continuing beyond one person’s availability.

The Pride She Helped Others Discover

When UNEP profiled Purnima Devi Barman in 2022, she identified the pride growing among Hargila Army members as one of her greatest rewards. She also hoped their success would encourage the next generation of conservationists. Source: UNEP

That brings her journey back to its childhood beginnings. Her grandmother had helped a distressed little girl discover an interest in birds. Years later, Barman helped other women find purpose, skills and recognition through caring for them.

The struggle in between mattered: the ridicule, the difficult conversations and the practical attempts that needed improvement. None offered an easy assurance of success.

Her achievement gives readers a reason to act without that assurance. A problem close to home may deserve attention before it attracts approval. Begin by understanding it, find people willing to help, and remain willing to learn.

In Assam, that work helped make a once-unwelcome bird something a community could be proud to protect.

Frequently asked questions

Sources and further reading

• TIME: Barman’s recollection of the 2007 turning point.
• UNEP: Childhood, conservation work and the Hargila Army.
• The Better India: Published interview, 1 August 2019.
• Whitley Fund for Nature: 2024 project profile.
• BirdLife International: Red List update, 12 December 2023.

Editorial note: Researched on 9 September 2026 using linked public sources. A New Thinking Era has not conducted a first-hand interview or independently counted birds or participants. No dialogue or private thoughts have been invented. Any accompanying AI-generated images are editorial illustrations, not documentary photographs.