GUWAHATI, NOV 23: Good news for the people of Assam, leading conservationsist of the state Purnima Devi Barman has been awarded the United Nation’s highest environmental honour, ‘Champions of the Earth’, for 2022.
Barman, a wildlife biologist, bagged the award along with four others from different countries for their transformative action to prevent, halt and reverse ecosystem degradation, United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) announced on Tuesday.
Barman, who has bagged Green Oscar, has strived for nearly two decades to ensure survival of the Greater Adjutant Stork by creating an all-woman grassroots conservationist group called the ‘Hargila (the Assamese name for the bird) Army’ to save the bird from extinction.
The award is given in various categories and Barman got it in the Entrepreneurial Vision category, for leading the “Hargila Army”.
The women in the group create and sell textiles with motifs of the bird, helping to raise awareness about the species while building their own financial independence.
UNEP’s Champions of the Earth honours individuals, groups, and organisations whose actions have a transformative impact on the environment. The annual Champions of the Earth award recognises outstanding leaders from government, civil society, and the private sector.