In Bihar’s Bhagalpur, a community-led effort, driven by schoolchildren, farmers and faith, has brought a near-extinct stork back from the brink.

Bhagalpur, Bihar: Every morning, Mankhush Kumar walks to his government school in Khairpur Kadwa village through a gate flanked by a large peepal tree. The tree is never quiet. Greater Adjutants, enormous, prehistoric-looking birds that an expert once declared extinct in Bihar, have made it one of their most important nesting sites in the region. Mankhush, who is in seventh grade, has grown up watching them. "Our basa is right next to the school," he said. "If any bird falls, we tell the doctor, and he takes it for treatment."

He said this the way another child might describe calling a plumber. It is utterly ordinary to him. That ordinariness, the fact that a twelve-year-old treats the rescue of an endangered species as routine, is perhaps the most quietly remarkable thing about Kadwa Diara.

Community working towards improving the ecosystem (Photo - Rahul Singh, 101Reporters)

From 16 nests to 140

It was not always this way. When ornithologist Arvind Mishra, a member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission and governing council member of the Bombay Natural History Society, first began working in this area in 2006, there were just 16 nests. Today, there are around 140. "This growth is due to increased awareness among local people, who do not allow hunting of this rare bird," he says.

But the starting point of that story predates even Mishra's arrival. In 2003, at a bird conservation seminar in Bhagalpur, an expert stated that the Greater Adjutant had gone extinct in the region. A young man in the audience disagreed. Jaynandan Mandal, then a local resident and now a schoolteacher in Kahalgaon, had seen the bird himself. He said so, was taken seriously, and subsequently became the first person to identify a Greater Adjutant nest in the district. Without that moment of contradiction, the conservation effort that followed might never have begun.

Recalling that moment in greater detail, Mandal said that when he intervened at the seminar, organisers from the Mandar Nature Club, including its president Professor TK Ghosh and secretary Sunil Agarwal, asked whether he had photographed the bird. "I told them I did not have a camera, who carries a camera while farming?" he said. He was then encouraged to help locate the bird and its nesting sites.

"In 2006, I first spotted a Greater Adjutant with two nests on a semal tree in Motichak village in the Sultanganj diara area," Mandal said. "I informed bird expert Arvind Mishra. The finding was widely reported in newspapers at the time and generated significant discussion."

The account aligns with contemporaneous research. A survey led by Dr Sunil Chaudhary around the same period recorded sightings of around 25 Greater Adjutants but did not locate any nests, noting that efforts to find breeding sites would continue—supporting Mandal's claim that he was the first to identify a nest in the district.

This area — roughly half a dozen villages across two panchayats, Kadwa Diara and Khairpur — has since been officially declared a Greater Adjutant Conservation and Breeding Zone by the Bihar government's Department of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. The birds build nests here during the breeding season from October to mid-April, then move to nearby wetlands, riverbanks, and grasslands in summer.

The Greater Adjutant was classified as "Near Threatened" by the IUCN in its 2023 assessment, a step back from the more dire classifications of earlier years, with its population now estimated between 1,360 and 1,510 individuals. The species breeds only in India and Cambodia. In India, it is confined to Assam and Bihar. Bhagalpur is the only district in the country where all six resident stork species are found together, including both the endangered Greater and Lesser Adjutants.

A survey recorded sightings of around 25 Greater Adjutants but did not locate any nests (Photo - Rahul Singh, 101Reporters)

The community that guards them

The conservation effort here is not run by the government. It is run by people like Rajiv Kumar, 38, a resident of Kadwa village who has been designated a Garuda Saviour. He estimates around 600 birds currently in the region. Mishra puts the figure closer to 700. The count has been climbing, and the reason, both agree, is simple: the community stopped looking away.

Bhagalpur's Divisional Forest Officer Ashutosh Raj describes a structure that has grown organically around that commitment. Thirty-two people have been trained as Garuda Saviours, 30 as Garuda Guardians, and 20 women as Garuda Sevikas. Jyoti Devi, one of the Sevikas, explains her role plainly: "If a Garuda is harmed in any way, we inform the doctor and the forest department and keep monitoring it. We have received training for this."

Teacher Ashok Kumar Yadav, at the school by the peepal tree, puts it simply: "We neither harm them ourselves nor allow anyone else to do so."

Mishra explained: "If conservation depends on financial incentives, it will collapse the moment funding stops…Instead, we helped the community understand why this bird matters to them."

Interestingly, the Greater Adjutant, locally called Garuda, is in Hindu tradition the vehicle of Lord Vishnu. That association, Mishra said, did as much as any training programme.

Naresh Singh, the mukhiya of Kadwa Diara panchayat, confirms that community ownership runs deep. "When many birds have become endangered and disappeared, our community takes initiative for conservation on its own. There is no conflict here. If anyone sees a Garuda or a stork in distress, they immediately inform the right people." He added, with evident pride: "People come from far away to see these birds because of our efforts. That is a matter of honour for our village."

The last line of defence for the Greater Adjutant (Photo - Rahul Singh, 101Reporters)

The honest trade-offs

Not everyone has been untouched by the costs. In Ganganagar, in Khairpur panchayat, Bablu Bhagat, 58, has four or five Greater Adjutants nesting on a kadamba tree behind his house. He does not harm them. But his wife, Tetri Devi, 50, is candid about what that commitment costs. The mango tree beside the kadamba has been damaged by the birds' droppings and no longer bears fruit. "Even then, we support conservation," she said. "But we expect compensation and support from the government and forest department."

Neither Tetri Devi nor Bablu Bhagat has received any compensation so far, and they have not formally applied for it. Their expectation reflects a broader sentiment among some residents that households hosting nesting birds should be supported, even if such demands have not been formally pursued.

Pankaj Kumar Jaiswal, the head of Khairpur panchayat, acknowledged the role of the forest department in supporting the community with the help of aids such as nets for injured birds, veterinary care, teams dispatched on receiving information. But the system has gaps.

Forest officials said that funding for conservation workers comes under the Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats scheme, with 60 percent contribution from the Centre and 40 percent from the state. Delays in fund allocation can lead to delays in payments, though recent disbursements have been made.

The threats that remain

In January 2026, six Greater Adjutants were found dead. Traces of poison were found in their bodies. Eight birds died across the year in total, including three juveniles. The source: fish poisoned in nearby water bodies, likely by people fishing illegally. The birds ate the fish. The birds died.

Rajiv Kumar said that there are also threats such as inadequate nets, supplied sometimes as a formality rather than a functioning tool, that fail to protect fallen chicks.

The other threat is the land itself. Nagina Rai, 65, who has been treating injured birds since joining conservation efforts in 2006, recorded 142 nests in 2024-25, slightly higher than the current count of around 140, a decline he links to two things: flooding on the Kosi River in 2025, which reduced suitable resting spots, and the steady loss of kadamba and semal trees.

As families grow and divide, new household units need land. Fields and open areas where trees stand become building plots. It is one of the most structurally difficult problems facing conservation here, because no law and no amount of community goodwill can easily override a family's need for a home.

At the same time, villagers say the birds have had subtle but noticeable ecological benefits. Several residents reported a decline in rat populations, which typically damage crops, and fewer snake sightings, reducing the risk of snakebites. While these changes do not translate into direct income gains, they contribute to a more stable local ecosystem.

Across households, including among women managing homes around nesting trees, there is little organised opposition to conservation. Some individuals express inconvenience or private concerns, but the broader sentiment remains supportive — often reinforced by the belief that the Garuda is associated with Lord Vishnu, making its presence culturally significant rather than burdensome.

But Greater Adjutants are now being sighted in Madhepura, Khagaria, and Katihar, districts where they were not recorded before. Professor DN Chaudhary of Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University, who has researched storks in the region, has tracked these sightings since 2022.

"Migration is a desirable outcome of conservation," he said. "It strengthens the species' survival. If a disease outbreak occurs in one area, populations elsewhere remain safe."

Mishra agreed. These are mostly non-breeding birds moving in search of food, he said, a sign that the core population at Kadwa Diara has grown large enough to push outward.

What the government is building

The DFO has outlined several forward-looking steps: tree plantation drives emphasising kadamba and semal, the Heritage Trees designation process, raised platforms around significant trees, and, most ambitiously, an attempt to bring the Kadwa Diara area under the Green Credit Programme, a Government of India initiative launched in 2023-24 aimed at rewarding communities for ecological stewardship.

(This story is supported by the Promise of Commons Fellowship, focusing on the significance of Commons and its community stewardship.)

Cover photo - A community-led effort, driven by schoolchildren, farmers and faith, has brought a near-extinct stork back from the brink (Photo - Rahul Singh, 101Reporters)