Stream now with YouTube. In the northeastern part of India, the greater adjutant stork has been considered an ill omen for generations, and the endangered bird has paid the price. Its breeding population here fell to just 115 birds by the 1990s. But when biologist Purnima Devi Barman witnessed villagers chop down a tree crowned with the storks’ nests — and chicks — she launched a grassroots effort to do something about it.