Volunteer finds joy in saving birds and people

To protect birds, Nie Luomin helps educate people to not kill them, despite some confrontations

For 13 years, Nie Luomin has lived a double life. During the day, the 47-year-old works as a loader in a shoe factory in Changde, Hunan province.

After the working day ends and on weekends, Nie becomes an environmental guardian who prevents poachers from hunting birds.

He has gained the name" Lunatic" from grudgeful farmers whose attempts to catch wild birds he has stopped.

Nie's volunteer work is to mainly remove mist nets. He patrols the villages to search and remove them or rushes over to the spot with nets directly after receiving messages from other volunteers.

To date, Nie has dismantled more than 1,800 bird nets in Changde and rescued more than 2,000 wild birds of various species. However, as his removal of the nets affected the profits of some farmers, he has faced some tough situations.

In May 2017, Nie was besieged by farmers in Junshanpu town when he was removing mist nets in a field. The farmers were angry because they used the nets to catch birds and protect their crops from damage.