Guwahati: On the glossy floors of India’s most-watched quiz show, Kaun Banega Crorepati, a rare bird took silent flight. It wasn’t in the studio, but in spirit when a question was posed about Dr. Purnima Devi Barman, the woman who turned a “filthy scavenger bird” into a state icon of pride and protection.
The endangered Greater Adjutant stork, or Hargila in Assamese, once drew disgust from villagers due to its size, smell, and scavenging habits. But Barman saw beauty and urgency where others saw nuisance. Armed with empathy and education, she launched the Hargila Army, an all-women conservation force now over 10,000 strong, transforming attitudes one nest at a time.
Her movement didn’t just save a bird from extinction it rewrote the relationship between rural communities and the wild. Women who once feared or ignored the bird now sew stork-themed fabrics, hold ‘baby showers’ for chicks, and proudly call themselves Hargila Baideus (stork sisters).
Her feature on KBC is more than a pop culture moment it’s a reminder that true heroes don’t always wear capes; some wear mekhela chadors, scale treetops, and save wings from being clipped forever.
Internationally celebrated, nationally honored, and locally loved, Barman proves that conservation is not a lonely fight it’s a community rising in flight.
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