‘Maldhok’ birds (the great Indian bustards) are grateful to Dr. Pramod Patil for his efforts to save them from near-extinction. A bright student from school days, Pramod is a medical doctor, and is seeking higher education in the same field. He works 24X7 to protect Maldhoks and tries various ways to achieve this task – keeping human intervention to a minimum in the area surrounding Maldhok conservatories, changing the mentality of locals towards the birds, developing accurate methods for counting of the birds, following up constantly with govt. departments, making people aware of the problem through audio-visual aids, reports a dedicated website etc.