Ornithology and ophthalmology – a perfect combination

‘The Adjutant half turned his head, sheered a little in the direction of the voice, and landed stiffly on the sand-bar below the bridge. Then you saw what a ruffianly brute he really was. His back view was immensely respectable, for he stood nearly six feet high, and looked rather like a very proper bald-headed parson. In front it was different, for his head and neck had not a feather to them…His legs were long and thin and skinny, but he moved them delicately, and looked, at them with pride as he preened down his ashy-gray tail-feathers, glanced over the smooth of his shoulder, and stiffened into ‘Stand at attention.’
The Second Jungle Book, Rudyard Kipling.

Kipling is describing a greater adjutant and what we saw, en route to a village screening camp in rural north Bihar, was a bird with which it is often mistaken - the lesser adjutant. Our sighted bird had a punk tuft of feathers on its otherwise bald head and its bill was narrower than the wedge-shaped, yellowed version of the greater adjutant. Nor did it have the characteristic pendulous pouch of that bird. First impressions of both birds, however, are the same. Sheer breathtaking size. That’s what caused our collective gasp of awe and the driver to slow down the vehicle.

Bihar is a state with over 100 million of the poorest people in India. But its rural areas are rich in wildlife including a huge variety of birds. Most of its people live in, work in, and love the countryside. Having spent much time amongst them during almost a quarter of a century, this line has crept into many of my funding applications for sight restoration : ‘imagine being able to enjoy once more the iridescent flash of a kingfisher flying low over a river.’
And now we have found a way for anyone who is eager to get off the well-trodden Indian tourist route, to visit rural Bihar and to appreciate the combined wonders of ophthalmology and ornithology. I will explain. But first let me just catalogue some of the birds that we came across on our most recent trip in January 2024.

A couple of hoopoes pecking the ground outside the walls of Bamdah Mission Hospital in Jamui district, southern Bihar. I love to think that this species may have been here for the 130 years that this hospital has been providing eye services to the poor. (The common hornbills that local eye surgeon Dr Samuel Murmu and I used to watch as they gathered in the spreading fruit tree in his garden, suddenly disappeared around 10 years ago.)
Also in Jamui, black Ibis who have deserted the tall palm trees, their previous gathering point, in favour of an ugly telephone mast. Each evening they vie with noisy green parrots in a cacophony of birdcalls.
A golden oriole in Madhepura district, north-eastern Bihar, which caught our eye as we left home for the Anand Eye Hospital.
A common kingfisher executing a rather attention-seeking circular flight for us just in front of this hospital. Many others seen throughout the trip.
A pied kingfisher spotted by one of our group.
Indian rollers galore (often confused with kingfishers)
Egrets
Koels
Mynas including pied mynas

And finally that awesome lesser adjutant which later flew so low over us we could make out the head hunkered into the neck, its huge wingspan, long legs and feet pointed like a ballet dancer. It chose the moment for its magnificent flight when we had identified a patient who, very sadly, was irreversibly blind in one eye, her injury to the cornea treated inappropriately by a quack doctor. Reminding us all of the importance of our work.
(No sightings of the state bird of Bihar, the house sparrow (known as the goureya in Hindi). Except a huge larger than life model in a museum in Patna. It remains an endangered species).

I have written a lot about the devastating impact of climate change in Bihar and the speedy action taken by our associated hospitals to reduce their own carbon footprint. This is the latest example…with an imaginative twist.

In the Bihar district of Madhepura, there is now an Eco Hotel. It is powered by solar energy, serves organic food grown locally, and encourages the protection of the environment and the promotion of good health – for example, there is a lift for disabled guests but others are urged to take the stairs. The hotel is above the Anand Eye Hospital, also powered by clean energy. Both hospital and hotel are the brainchildren of ophthalmologist Dr Amit Anand. He would like income from the hotel to help fund vital surgery for cataract-blind patients who are simply too poor to pay. Hotel Ananda guests who donate in this way need only step through glass doors on the ground floor to enter the eye hospital and watch the team at work. Most patients are farmers whose entire families spend long days in the fields sowing, reaping and transporting the vegetables and fruit that end up on the hotel restaurant tables.

Dr Amit is one of the finest eye surgeons I have ever come across. There is no ophthalmic procedure that he cannot perform. When it comes to cataract, he can restore sight to a blind patient in a few minutes. The cost is about the same as a night’s stay at the Hotel Ananda: around £20.
What a win win situation this could be if the newly opened hotel regularly filled its rooms! As for planning your birdwatching? Once installed at the Hotel Ananda, you can hire a local vehicle and start by taking a road well- trodden by Second Sight people. This links the Anand Eye Hospital in Madhepura with the YDMH eye hospital in neighbouring Araria district. It is a brilliant location for spotting all kinds of bird species. Ask the staff at both hospitals where they go for village outreach programmes and you will make further ornithological discoveries.

How to get there:
Flight to Delhi.
Flight or train to Patna in Bihar. Train to Madhepura (telegraph wire birdwatching all the way)
Vehicle to the Hotel Ananda.
Contact: hotelananda79@gmail.com Tel : + 919798536178/ +919234247822

Lucy Mathen

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