The
rare Greater Adjutant Stork has a new address
New
Delhi, May 26, 2003 : Researchers looking
for nesting sites of the largest group of the Greater
Adjutant Stork, outside the north eastern state of
Assam, regrettably drew a blank. The rare and endangered
bird, the Greater Adjutant Stork (GAS), has, for the
first time ever, been spotted outside Assam at the
Vikramshila Gangetic Dolphin (VGD) Sanctuary in the
north eastern state of Bhagalpur, Bihar.
What makes the sighting particularly
interesting is that the GAS is found only at 2 places
in the world - near the floodplains of the Brahmaputra
in Assam (455 in number) and to some extent in Cambodia
(100 birds) too. Also, the numbers of these birds
have rapidly been dwindling and they face extinction
in the near future. (It has been assigned to the status
of ‘Endangered Species’ by IUCN). The
detection of 20 of these birds is a positive sign
to the wildlife community of the world and provides
for another opportunity to save the dying species.
Though the first sighting near the
Sanctuary was reported in 2001, the consistent presence
of the GAS needed to be verified. Therefore, in order
to study the habitation and nesting of the bird in
Bhagalpur, the Vikramshila Biodiversity Research &
Education Centre, funded by the Wildlife Trust of
India (WTI), conducted a field study of the Sanctuary
and the area around it. 15 survey trips were organized
between June 2002 and April 2003. The survey established
that there was a population of GAS in and around the
VGD. The joint report has recorded the details of
the nesting trees in that area, the kind of trees,
number of nests, the anthropogenic activities of the
bird and so on.
In Assam, where the largest population
of the Greater Adjutant Stork is found, the WTI had
earlier joined hands with Aranyak, a local NGO, to
protect GAS chicks falling out of their nests. The
little chicks faced a unique problem. The bird builds
its nest on very tall trees – as high as 65
to 100 feet. The branches of these trees could only
bear the weight of the birds while the hatchlings
are small. When the young chicks grow, their increased
weight and that of their parents caused the tree branches
to break and the nest would crash to the ground. Many
of these hatchlings either died instantly or were
left injured only to be consumed by dogs, jackals
etc. Freak storms, called Kalbaisakhi, sweep across
through eastern and north-eastern India during January
and April and also throw the nests off the trees.
Deforestation too has indirectly led to these ‘fall’
deaths. The storks nest in communities. So, a single
tree could be home to a dozen nests. As the availability
of trees decreases, the pressure on each accessible
tree increases, thereby forcing some storks to settle
for the not-so-suitable, weak branches.
Prof. P.C.Bhattacharjee, an academic
from the Guwahati University and a Trustee of the
Wildlife Trust of India, came up with an easy solution
to save stork chicks. Since he is a keen cricketer,
his remedy to this problem also came from the cricket
field. Safety nets. The birds breed from October to
April and the safety nets were put around these trees
in September 2000 in two nesting colonies in Khutikhatia
and North Haibargaon. The nets, made of thick nylon
lined with soft muslin cloth, protected as many as
42 nests. Each nest usually has two to four chicks.
The nets proved to be a life-saver. During the 2000
to 2001 breeding season, 21 chicks were rescued. The
chicks were returned to the nests of their parents,
which willingly accepted their young ones. However,
when it was difficult to determine which nest the
chicks fell from, the young storks were hand-reared.
Of the 21 chicks recovered in 2000 to 2001, 15 were
returned to their parents and six had to be hand-reared
in a bird rehabilitation center.
Local people, near the VGD Sanctuary,
have reported seeing the GAS throughout the year and
in large numbers during October and February.
