Mobilising Assam's 'hargila army': how 10,000 women saved India's rarest stork

Greater adjutants, reviled as bad omens, were endangered until Indian conservationist Purnima Devi Barman transformed attitudes to the bird - and gave thousands of women a new identityPhotographs by Anne Pinto-RodriguesOn a cool December afternoon a group of women dressed in brightly coloured mekhela chadors (Assam's traditional handwoven clothing) sit in a circle on the grass at the Bhokha Beel wetlands, singing and clapping.Some of the women are wearing papier-mache headdresses shaped like long-necked birds. As they sing, one of them gets to her feet and starts dancing.The endangered greater adjutant stork, or hargila Continue reading...