The lesser adjutant stork is thriving in the Bokaro district of Jharkhand with 385 individuals sighted at 14 different locations, notes a study by Mithilesh Dutta Dwivedi, an enthusiastic birder who has been monitoring the bird population of Jharkhand since 2012 as part of his Ph.D. research. The lesser adjutant (Leptoptilos javanicus) is a large wading bird in the stork family Ciconiidae. The largest population of the lesser adjutant storks in India is found in Assam, West Bengal, and Bihar.

In 2012, the presence of the lesser adjutant in Jharkhand was limited to a few sightings of individuals. Dwivedi, a school teacher who was also studying the avian diversity of Bokaro district in Jharkhand for his Ph.D., spotted a small nesting population of 20 lesser adjutants in the Uttasara village during one of his field visits. Back then, Dwivedi had only seen the lesser adjutant once, during a bird census in the Udhwa bird sanctuary. Driving past a tall Ficus benghalensis tree, Dwivedi spotted large birds that had built platform nests on the tree. “I could not immediately identify the bird because lesser adjutants were rarely if ever seen in the area, and no nesting population of this bird was known from Jharkhand,” he said.

Following this, Dwivedi contacted Arvind Mishra, also a birding enthusiast from the Mandar Nature Club in Bihar, a group that works to save great adjutant stork, another bird in the Ciconiidae family, from near extinction. Mishra confirmed that the bird that Dwivedi spotted was the lesser adjutant. In February 2013, Dwivedi came across a small breeding colony of lesser adjutants on a banyan tree in the Ambadih-Uttasara village of Peterwar block in Bokaro. “Lesser adjutants in the Udhwa bird sanctuary were spotted foraging, but there was no breeding population study conducted before 2013,” he said. “Long-term data shows that lesser adjutants are thriving in this area.”

Favourable farmlands

So far, five species of storks have been observed in Jharkhand: Asian openbill stork, painted stork, woolly-necked stork, black-necked stork, and the lesser adjutant. Of these, the Asian openbill is the most common, breeding in large colonies at several locations. Only one sub-adult painted stork has been observed, and the breeding sites of black-necked storks and woolly-necked storks have not been observed till date.

Since 2012, Dwivedi has tracked the population data of nine breeding seasons and found the lesser adjutant breeding well and thriving in Jharkhand.

Data from Dwivedi’s study reveals that farmlands offer a favourable habitat for the 385 lesser adjutants. Since this study, the lesser adjutant has been listed as “near threatened” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), in 2023, an improvement in its status since it was previously categorised as “vulnerable”. The IUCN attributes the slowdown in the population decline to conservation measures, particularly community-schemes, and notes, “Although it is no longer at high risk of extinction, some populations are undoubtedly still declining, and the species remains vulnerable to threats.”

The farmers in Uttasara, where the first nesting population in Jharkhand was found, told Dwivedi that the lesser adjutant is locally known as “khat khat” because of the clattering sound it makes to ward off predators. The locals report that before 1970, about 50 nests of lesser adjutants inhabited “semal” trees (Bombax ceiba) in the area. The lesser adjutants disappeared from the area after 1970 and were reported again only after 2010, when Dwivedi was conducting field trips for his Ph.D.

Birds were likely there, but less reported 

K.S. Gopi Sundar, co-chair, IUCN Stork, Ibis and Spoonbill Specialist Group, suggests that lesser adjutants may have resettled in lowland Nepal during this period. “We found one of the largest lesser adjutant populations in lowland Nepal, not very far from Jharkhand,” he said. “They have been thriving there for decades, likely due to high breeding success. The young birds might have been roaming in search of new habitats. Recently, Bokaro district in Jharkhand seems to have become more suitable for them.”  He added that for a stork, state boundaries do not matter. “From Etawah and Agra in eastern Uttar Pradesh, across the lowlands of Nepal, down to Kolkata, and extending into Southeast Asia along the Mekong, the lesser adjutant considers this whole floodplain area its home. The entire region is a seasonal floodplain, which the lesser adjutant relies on.”

There has been no radio tagging study of lesser adjutants to be able to know how widespread their movements are. “During the breeding season, they are confined to a small area of a few dozen square kilometres around their nest, but in the non-breeding season they may travel long distances in search of food,” said Asad Rahmani, former director of the Bombay Natural History Society. “We need to study their home range, dispersal and migration by putting satellite transmitters on some birds, and colour tags on many individuals.”

On the other hand, Mishra says that the lesser adjutant population in Jharkhand likely went unnoticed due to a lack of informed birdwatchers. “The lesser adjutants may have always been present in this area, but without birders to identify them, they went unobserved,” he added. “As interest in birding grows and observations become more frequent, we are seeing more reports. The birds were likely there all along, but due to colony saturation or disturbances, they moved to areas with less bird watching activity.”

Religious significance and food habits

The lesser adjutant is thriving in Jharkhand because it faces no food shortage and is being protected by the farmers due to its religious significance, as it is considered sacred in Hindu mythological texts. “There was a myth during the Mughal era that if you break the head of a live greater adjutant, you will find a snake stone, which is an antidote to all snake bites,” Mishra added. “This was one of the causes for them being hunted and the lesser adjutant was not attacked or disturbed for this reason.” Mishra is also a member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission.

“Farmers in the area have noted a significant decline in snake bite incidents from the region since the lesser adjutant population increased after 2010,” said Dwivedi. Hublal Mahto, a farmer and head of the Van Surakha Samiti, a committee that protects forests, in Ambadih village, Bokaro district, said that locals now feel safe due to the presence of the lesser adjutants. “We can now sleep outdoors peacefully,” he added. “All the villagers know that the lesser adjutants protect us from snakes.”

Farmers and storks coexist

During his fieldwork, Dwivedi noticed a harmonious coexistence between farmers and lesser adjutant storks. Farmers would diligently work on the land, while the storks searched for food, with neither of them being disturbed by the other’s presence. Farmers in the Bokaro district said they were happy, once the lesser adjutant population increased. Unlike Bihar, where stork eggs were hunted by humans before, Mishra spread awareness about the need to conserve storks. In addition, Dwivedi said that farmers in Jharkhand have always conserved the lesser adjutants due to their religious significance. Hindu religious beliefs revere the trees that are home to this species, and this bird is associated with the mythological creature “garuda”, which was a vehicle of the Hindu deity, Vishnu.

Unlike the greater adjutants, which are known for their scavenging behaviour, lesser adjutants primarily hunt live prey. “Lesser adjutants mainly eat fish, rats, and snakes,” said Mishra. “By eating rats, they help farmers, and by consuming snakes, they help maintain the balance of the snake population,” he added.

Farmlands, once considered unsuitable for large birds, are actually a haven for lesser adjutants. “In India, farmlands are not heavily mechanised and are rich in wildlife,” Sundar said. “Species like cranes and storks find plenty of food on these farms. Despite the presence of pesticides, we were pleasantly surprised to see these large birds thriving. At least in Bihar, lowland Nepal, and Uttar Pradesh, we suspect that the massive monsoon flooding significantly dilutes the pesticides.”

In some parts of India, however, where rubber plantations are common, the lesser adjutants do not find any food sources. “This is the reason one hardly finds any waterbirds in parts of Kerala taken over by rubber plantations,” he added. “Rubber is not good for storks because they do not find any food in such areas. Additionally, rubber plantations use an incredible amount of pesticide. The lesser adjutants, which can otherwise be found in what we consider heavily disturbed places, vanish when they encounter soyabean or rubber plantations or other crops unsuitable for the climate in which they are planted.”

As the population of lesser adjutants grows in one area, they expand their territory by moving locally to other areas with food sources and trees. Mishra added that when one lesser adjutant colony is saturated, they exit the territory. “I have seen the lesser adjutant in Chhattisgarh, too. They keep moving locally, according to the availability of trees and food.”

Banner image: The lesser adjutant (Leptoptilos javanicus) is a large wading bird in the stork family Ciconiidae. Image by Parag Patgri via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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Aditi Tandon Senior Production Editor

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AgricultureBirdsCommunity based conservationConservationResearchJharkhand

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