Assam’s wildlife biologist Purnima Devi Barman has won her second 2024 Whitley Gold Award, also known as the Green Oscar Gold, for grassroots conservation efforts dedicated to protecting the Greater Adjutant Stork (Hargilla) from extinction, the Whitley Fund for Nature said on Wednesday.
This is Barman’s second Gold award after 2017. The award entitles a project funding of £35,000 to scale up efforts of national and regional conservationists and support them in their endeavour to conserve wildlife and nature.
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In 2017, she received her inaugural Green Oscar in a glittering ceremony at London’s Royal Geographical Society from Princess Anne of the British Royal Family.
In 2019, Barman secured the continuation of the fund and according to the Awards’ website, she replicated the success of her “phenomenally work” in villages of Kamrup district.
Purnima now plans to work with 10,000 villagers, schools and government to increase the greater adjutant population; protect nesting sites and rescue fallen chicks.
The biologist is associated with Assam-based NGO Aaranyak, biodiversity conservation organisation.
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Interestingly, Hargilla serves as the mascot for voter awareness in the Kamrup (Metro) district, which is heading to the polls on May 7 for the Guwahati Lok Sabha seat.
Named “Tutola” and “Kadami”, the mascots were chosen by the Election Commission of India to encourage massive turnouts in the Lok Sabha election.
Whitley Awards are a registered recognition of the UK-based charity organization, Whitley Fund for Nature.
The awards particularly seek to recognize wildlife conservationists from outside the developed world.
