♪ (birds chirping) (Purnima speaking English) ♪ ♪ (leaves rustling) (tree thuds) ♪ (residents singing in Assamese) ♪ (Purnima speaking English) ♪ NARRATOR: Purnima Devi Barman grew up in the Indian state of Assam, where she forged an early connection with one of its rarest creatures.

The greater adjutant stork.

♪ (wings flapping) These enormous birds hunt and scavenge across northern India and southeast Asia.

But they breed in only a few places.

One is in Cambodia.

The others are in northeast India.

♪ Here in Assam, there were once just 115 of them left.

An ancient bird on the path to extinction.

Locals call the storks hargila or "bone swallower" because they can eat every part of a carcass.

(birds chittering) Their scavenging helps reduce disease and benefits the wildlife, and people who live here.

But it also gives the birds a bad reputation.

(Purnima speaking English) ♪ NARRATOR: Then, in 2007, a disturbing encounter spurred Purnima to push beyond pure research.

(Purnima speaking English) NARRATOR: But the confrontation didn't lead to the outcome she hoped for.

Instead of helping to save the injured chicks, the man and his companions turned on Purnima, and mocked the birds' suffering.

(Purnima speaking English) ♪ NARRATOR: That would be no small feat.

The creature can be unsettling.

It's nearly five feet tall, with an eight foot wingspan, and an inflatable neck pouch that it uses in mating displays.

♪ Its looks draw comparisons to undertakers, and associations with death itself.

♪ (Purnima speaking English) NARRATOR: It can also be a difficult neighbor.

(Purnima speaking English) NARRATOR: For ages, the storks have flocked to Assam for the wetlands.

(Purnima speaking English) NARRATOR: Here they hunt for fish, amphibians, and anything dead.

(engine revving) But as Assam's human population grew tenfold over the past century, the wetlands shrank and the storks were forced to find other ways to survive.

♪ Today, they've adapted to life in a manmade landscape.

♪ (excavator beeping) (Purnima speaking English) ♪ (birds chittering) NARRATOR: This survival strategy hasn't helped their reputation.

♪ (Manab speaking Assamese) (Noni speaking Assamese) (Protima speaking Assamese) (Namita speaking Assamese) NARRATOR: Purnima realized that the struggling storks were desperately in need of a new image.

It was a tough sell.

(Purnima speaking English) NARRATOR: Then, she hit on a more enticing recipe.

♪ (Purnima speaking English) NARRATOR: More women showed up, and once they grew to know her, she even got invited to a baby shower.

♪ (Purnima speaking English) (residents speaking Assamese) (Purnima speaking English) (residents singing in Assamese) (Purnima speaking English) NARRATOR: Purnima brought the get-togethers to other communities.

(Purnima speaking English) (residents speaking Assamese) (Purnima speaking English) (residents singing in Assamese) (residents singing in Assamese) (residents singing in Assamese) NARRATOR: More and more did, and the movement took on a name that reflected its surging numbers: the Hargila Army.

(Purnima speaking English) NARRATOR: As the campaign gained momentum, conservation groups around the world took notice and chipped in with funding to help the storks recover.

Purnima invested these resources in more cultural outreach.

(Purnima speaking English) (Purnima speaking Assamese) (Noni and Purnima laughing) (Noni speaking Assamese) (Pranita speaking Assamese) ♪ (weaver crackling) NARRATOR: Today, more than a thousand women in Assam weave textiles and sew garments that feature the stork in their design.

They increase local pride in the rare bird, and sales are booming.

(Noni speaking Assamese) NARRATOR: The work provides women with an independent source of income changing the social dynamics in these communities.

♪ (Noni speaking Assamese) NARRATOR: It's a central part of Purnima's strategy.

♪ (Purnima speaking English) ♪ NARRATOR: Purnima has also found ways to bring the men into this salvation army.

Here, men own most of the land including the trees the birds nest in.

So, she invites them to help plant saplings of trees the storks favor and hold ceremonies to honor those who protect them.

(Purnima speaking English) NARRATOR: Over the past year, the Hargila Army has planted more than 45,000 trees to create new canopy for nests.

(birds chittering) But even when protected, these nurseries can be precarious.

(Purnima speaking English) ♪ (Dipankar speaking Assamese) NARRATOR: Up to three quarters of adjutant chicks die from the fall or subsequent starvation.

Too high a loss for a species the Army is trying to save.

♪ So, to safeguard the nestlings, teams install nets to break their fall.

♪ (Manab speaking Assamese) (Dipankar speaking Assamese) NARRATOR: The chicks are cared for at the Assam Forest Department or here at the Center for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation.

♪ (birds chittering) At this stage of their young lives, chicks are completely dependent on their parents, so it's up to human caregivers to nurse them back to health.

♪ (birds chittering) By the time they're around six months old, they're ready to be released.

♪ (birds chittering) Since 2007, more than 500 birds have been rescued and freed at their nesting sites.

♪ Thanks to the Hargila Army, these villages have become a stronghold for recovery.

Since its low point decades ago, the Assam population has grown 15-fold.

(Purnima speaking English) NARRATOR: Today, the storks have been upgraded from "endangered" to "near threatened".

An encouraging conservation milestone.

(child speaking Assamese) NARRATOR: It's a triumph that's being shared with a new generation, who are learning to appreciate and care for nature from a young age.

(Purnima speaking English) (residents singing in Assamese) (Purnima speaking English) ♪ (residents singing in Assamese) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪