Boosting conservation efforts of greater adjutant storks

Guwahati (Assam), September 9, 2018:

To boost the conservation efforts of greater adjutant storks at Dadara and the adjoining areas, BirdLife International has declared the Dadara-Pasariya-Singimari belt as an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA).

An IBA is an area identified using an internationally-agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations.

The pioneer of the initiative has been Purnima Devi Barman since the past decade along with three adjacent villages in a semi-urban area off Guwahati.

“The area has the largest nesting colony of the endangered greater adjutant (Leptoptilos dubius). The villages have houses with tin/thatch/concrete roof and almost every household has a few trees in their compound. Greater adjutants build nests in these private village gardens. They prefer tall trees and mainly nest on Neolamarckia cadamba, Bombax ceiba, Artocarpus lacucha, Artocarpus heterophyllus, Pithecellobium monadelphum and Archidendron bigeminum. Sometimes, up to 15 nests are found on one tree,” said BirdLife International.

Purnima informed that the average number of nests from 2009 to 2014 was 116. She said that the IBA recognition would boost the villagers to engage in adjutant stork conservation.

Moreover, few white-rumped vultures (Gyps bengalensis) and lesser adjutant storks have also been found in the area, while the slender-billed vultures (Gyps tenuirostris) have not been seen in recent years. Both these species were listed as critically-endangered in the IUCN Red Data Book.