Whimsical Beginnings of the Stork

One of my first story memories is of the Disney picture of the stork flying with the baby elephant, Dumbo, held within a swaddling cloth in its beak. Dumbo was being delivered to its mother elephant in the circus. Suddenly, my childhood imagination came alive with the idiom ‘the stork brought the baby home’. Have you ever had a colloquialism come to life in your mind as a child? If yes, then you will also know how difficult it is to get these incorrect notions out of your head.

There are many folklore connections made to storks throughout history. In Greek mythology, storks were associated with stealing babies after the goddess Hera turned her rival into a stork. The stork-woman attempted to steal Hera’s son. In Egyptian mythology, the soul of a person was usually represented by a stork. The return of the stork meant the return of the soul, at which point the person could become animated again. In Norse mythology, family values and commitment to one another was symbolized in the image of a stork.

The people in Western European countries held the belief that if a stork was seen on the roof of a house that a baby birth was likely to occur in that house soon. Supposedly, this belief originated in Dutch villages with a growing population. The growth led to more houses which resulted in more roofs that were the nesting sites for storks. As the storks gained more territory for their nests, more storks were hatched and the belief that a baby’s birth was imminent became self-perpetuating.

European folktales parallel ponds and lakes to the womb. An ancient folktale attests to seeing a ‘bird-man’ emerging from the earth’s womb to bring forth new life. By imaging a bird large enough to be construed as a man, walking on two legs – its beak full and coming forth from a symbolic, watery womb – the comparisons of babies being delivered by storks can easily be correlated.

Societies in Asian countries have a long-held reverence for the stork. The stork holds symbolic meaning in many ways including: purity, fidelity, provision, new birth, prosperity, good luck and motherhood. The symbolic connection to motherhood is likely related to its migratory habits of returning in the springtime, a time of renewal and rebirth of the earth. The stork returning at the same time the earth is entering into Her renewal period would create the connection that the stork ushers in the renewal of Mother Earth.

The most heartwarming story of the stork, in my opinion, comes from India and is one that ties the present to the past. The story is about the greater adjutant stork, one of the world’s rarest storks. The greater adjutant stork used to flock freely and fearlessly on the banks of the Brahmaputra River in the state of Assam, India.

Recently, the impressive bird has greatly diminished in population because people have lost their connection to the historical value of these birds that were once the subject of tales narrated to children and songs playfully sung about the impressive bird. Today, many people see them as both terrifying and a nuisance. They are gargantuan five-foot-tall scruffy birds with spindly legs and dull grey feathers. They primarily scavenge for food and sully people’s homes with odoriferous droppings. People who live close to their habitat often chop down trees on which the storks nest, or try to smoke them out. These actions have caused a drop in this species of bird to the point of being listed on the endangered species list.

A woman by the name of Purnima Devi Barman recognized the near absence of the greater adjutant stork in the village where she grew up – Pub Majir Gaon – in the state of Assam. Barman was taught to appreciate and value the stork by her grandmother’s teachings to her. When Barman realized that the stork was teetering on the brink of extinction she chose to dedicate her PhD work to saving the bird. Today, there are only 800 – 1200 mature birds left in the world compared to the 19th century when the stork could be found across much of south and southeast Asia. During the 1800s, the bird became a cultural symbol adorning heritage buildings as emblems.

Because of the dedication of Purnima Devi Barman and her alignment with Aaranyak (a non-profit for nature conservation in northeast India) in 2009, there is now a formal community based program in place to protect the stork. Barman began involving the community which has become an army of women to save the greater adjutant stork. The women hold cooking competitions which are organized to facilitate educational talks about the necessity of these birds to the sustenance of the local habitat. The birds are celebrated. Baby showers are organized for newborn storks. Theatre groups put on plays with stork themes. Stork puppets are crafted by volunteers and worn by actors who sing and dance to generate awareness about the birds. Stork motifs are woven into traditional towels and dresses. Drawing competitions are held for children in order to merge environmental awareness with tradition and culture. Barman explains, “The idea was to inculcate a sense of ownership and community pride in the rare breed of stork.”

All of this work has paid off. In the past 13 years, stork nest numbers have surged from just 27 to more than 210. If you would like to help fund the efforts of these women, then reach out to the Whitley Fund for Nature in the United Kingdom and specify that you want your contribution to go to the Hargila Army – a battalion of 400 women who are actively involved in the stork’s conservation.

The stork has had a long and varied history in its relationship to people. One thing is certain, it is a bird that is impressive, necessary to earth’s ecology and appreciated in myriad ways by young and old while holding a special place in the heart of women. I appreciate the stork for its regal appearance and variety as well as the whimsical image that will forever live in my mind of Dumbo being gently laid into his mother’s trunk by that ridiculously strong stork.

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