Woolly-necked Stork

The Woolly-necked Stork,( locally known as Dokhar डोखर) Ciconia episcopus, is a large wading bird in the stork family Ciconiidae. It can also be known as the Espiscopos.

It is a widespread tropical species which breeds in Africa, and also in Asia from India to Indonesia. It is a resident breeder in wetlands with trees. The large stick nest is built in a forest tree, and 2-5 eggs form the typical clutch. This stork is usually silent, but indulges in mutual bill-clattering when adults meet at the nest.

The Woolly-necked Stork is a large bird, typically 85 cm tall. It is all black except for the woolly white neck and white lower belly. The upperparts are glossed dark green, and the breast and belly have a purple hue.

The main threat to this species in South East Asia is severe habitat fragmentation. The species has also suffered population reductions as a result of habitat destruction and shooting.

Pictures were taken near Selibeli (Kothi Haat) in Madhudani district of Bihar, India.

Neel kanth- State bird of Bihar

Indian Roller  नील कंठ
The Indian roller (Coracias benghalensis) is locally known as "Neel Kanth " and is chosen as the state bird for the Indian states of Bihar, Karnataka, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh.

The local name of this once often sighted bird is Neelakant ,नील कंठ (meaning “blue throat”), a name associated with the deity Shiva (who drank poison resulting in the blue throat). During former times, a captive roller would be released by the local ruler during festivals such as Dussera.

Its a beautiful sight to see the birg in full flight..the flashing twirling shades of blue in the sunlight are mesmerizing...one needs a lot of patience, bit of luck and a fast lens..one day I will get this beauty full frame in full flight.

The Kosi experiance

Everytime I go into Kosi flood plains, there is always something positive to learn,a bit of fear & a lot to be thankful about. 

This time, while going to Madhepura we were confronted with a dead bridge. The B.P.Mandal Setu is a newish rcc bridge,perhaps more than a kilometer long. Its situated on NH 107 and joins Madhepura with NH 30.The bridge has been closed recently as the midspan support pillars have sunk in.

Thus, to go to madhepura,if you have your vehicle,easier option was to cross the river by a boat. These country made boats are fitted with a diesel engine commonly used for pumping water and modified to drive the propeller.

Portable ramps made of bamboo are used to load & unload the vehicle. Once the vehicle is loaded,it is secured in its place by wedging sandbags or stone blocks in front of its wheels.

Its not the best looking boat, but its sturdy and it works. We loaded our 2.5ton vehicle on the boat..and it creaked and jarred all the way up the deck where it was secured.

As the engine caught on, the steady diesel engine chatter was reassuring,but it did not remain that way for long..about two third way down the river, the boat hit a sandbar and lodged itself right into it...and the over strained engine spluttered to a stop.

The boatmen then tried to make a under current channel by using anchors to scrape sand and directing the undercurrent of the river to dislodge the boat. The strain on the anchor was too much & the anchor broke. Having no other option, the elder of the two boatman waded through the river, went to his place about a a km away and hauled a heavy anchor all the way back to the boat and replaced the broken anchor.

They again started working the current towards the boat and finally after about two hours, the boat was free.

These guys have shown immense courage and presence of mind apart from the boating skill they grow up with. No wonder, guys like them saved thousands of lives during the floods. For them water is life & boats their livelyhood.

They did not accept any extra money and were happy with whatever rates the government has fixed for them. It was humbling to see the amount of work they do,the kind of risks they take & yet happy & satiated with what whatever life has offered them.

Update - Day 36

Dear friends,

Consignments received today;

1. 100 vial testing supply (for water testing kit ) ~sent by Guneshwar, Gandhinagar ( Total cost with refill Rs.12213.00)
   
2. One carton of clothes sent by Capegemini, Pune.

Stabilization and rehabilitation;

One month & six days after the embankment at Kusaha went down; a lot of cloud still surrounds the whereabouts of people who should have been accounted by now.

Out of 3.5 million people who are reported to be affected by this deluge, a maximum of one million (very liberal estimate) are taking shelter in relief camps. Many people are reported to have moved on to Places outside the flood zone…How many? 2.5 million?

Twenty five hundred thousand people cannot just move out into thin air …they have to be some where. When and how will we know that? Many people are reported to have gone back to the villages as water receded, how many we do not know !!

It’s a Herculean task and all of us have to chip in.

Psychological counseling is one of the critical factors while addressing stabilization issue. Children are the most vulnerable, specially the ones whose family is missing, those who have seen their loved ones Gone under, those who have faced nature’s wrath huddled with their parent, day in day out, hungry, sick, frightened and confused.

Many of the flood victims are young, teenagers, children.. How can they look forward to a new life with all these emotional baggage and suffering that they have to carry for the rest of their lives?

Psychological counseling at camps has to be provided by the best professionals around; they have to be counseled for a new life ahead.

A lot of work has to be done, and the threat of rise in water level still looms large, Kosi is a late bloomer, it can turn ugly again, lets hope and pray that it does not.

If possible, let us have a skype conf. and share views on how these problems can/should be addressed.

We have given ten lifejackets to Anand Marg Universal Relief Team (AMURT). They had an incident while trying to get in Birpur interior and their boat capsized. Earlier, we had also given them clothes & 12 boxes of chlorine for the 12 camps they are running in interior areas.

We need plastic sheets/trampoline sheets for families’ deeper inside on the embankment.

We also need a tent for our team ( 2-4 person). We cannot stay at the site because of lack of shelter and that means more time is spent traveling and very less time on the actual site.

Darafga embankment, for example, is 300 0dd KM away; we leave Patna by 10pm, drive the whole night and reach the site by 9-10am . We hardly have 4-5 hours as we have to leave the site by 3pm to reach Katihar before sun down. And then 10-12 hours drive back.

I plan to stay on the embankment for 3-4 days; we can get a lot of things done and cover a lot of settlements if we stay at the site.

We have taken a room at Saharsa for storing our supplies, and once/if I have a tent, we’ll have a base there.

My team members will be coming back from their native village by 10 am today (they had gone for ‘Jeetiya’ and ‘Pind daan’) and we will start relief ops again tonight.

CFTRI ,Mysore has some good high energy low volume food packets, if any of us can find out more about them, it will be helpful.

I plan to work on the camps we have touched till December, if need be. I would hope for your continued support till then. I could not have done even 1% of the work, if I didn’t have a positive, pro active, supporting and integrated team like you folks.

Thank you all so much.

Chandan Singh

Bihar floods