India has a Champion of the Earth – Gulf Today

India has a Champion of the Earth – Gulf Today

Purnima Devi Barman

India’s Purnima Devi Barman, an Assam-based wildlife biologist, is one of the five ‘Champions of the Earth’ for this year, as announced by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The other honourees include Arcenciel (Lebanon); Constantino (Tino) Aucca Chutas (Peru); Sir Partha Dasgupta of the United Kingdom and Cecile Bibiane Ndjebet (Cameroon). In April 2022, Sir David Attenborough was also recognized with the prestigious Champions of the Earth Lifetime Achievement award. The annual Champions of the Earth award is the UN’s highest environmental honour. It recognizes outstanding leaders from government, civil society, and the private sector.

Barman has been working with local communities – women, specifically – in Assam for more than a decade now to conserve the greater adjutant stork, an endangered wetland bird whose numbers have been declining due to habitat destruction and cutting down of nesting trees. She won the award