On the trail of giants

FROM LEFT CLOCKWISE: Diggin in the dirt — students analyse elephant droppings. One of Sittichoke Nuamcharoen's drawings A natural classrom held near the Pa-La U Waterfalls

Here, the sight of wild elephants roaming through farms and feeding on crops is not out of the ordinary. What is unusual, however, is the attitude of local farmers who, rather than regarding the elephants as pests, increasingly see them as cohabitants in a semi-wild environment.

This attitude is thanks, in part, to the Thailand Environment Institute (TEI), an organisation that has played a key role in helping villagers learn how to co-exist peacefully with these giants of the jungle.

At the broadest level, the institute reaches out to local schools and communities by recruiting high school students to work on environmental projects such as collecting garbage in rivers, performing environmentally themed plays, and organising environmental camps.

Last month, 52 students from seven schools — three from Petchaburi province and four from the Bangkok and Nonthaburi areas — came together for one of these camps to learn about elephants and environmental issues in Kaeng Krachan National Park.

The field trip was the first activity organised by www.thaienvi.net, a website that aims to instill environmental awareness in high school students. While supported financially by energy giant Banpu, the website’s content is guided by the TEI, which also lends its field expertise during related camping activities.

During the three-day camp, students learn about nature by immersing themselves in the forest and undertaking activities like birdwatching, hiking, and learning how elephants live and how they and local villagers clash over land.

“In this area, land disputes between wild elephants and villagers is the biggest problem,” says Kosol Saengthong, field coordinator of Thai Environment Institute. According to Kosol, the biggest concern is that of elephants feeding on locals’ crops.

This is a complex issue — one that broadly covers the rights of nature versus the rights of man. So in order to simplify it for the students, the camp organisers, with the help of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), have designed a two-hour educational hike.

While hiking, students follow the elephants’ footsteps and gain a better understanding of their behaviour. The starting point for the trip is an area where villagers used to plant pineapples — an activity no longer possible since the elephants tend to eat the fruit. All that’s left now are trees — mostly bamboo — a trail, and elephant droppings.

“We can learn a lot about wild elephants by analysing their droppings,” Kosol explains. “For example, we learn that 65 percent of wild elephants consume creepers, not bamboo like we once thought.”

Fascinated by the sight of the droppings, Sorathat Ekjariyawong, a student from Pak Kred Secondary School in Nonthaburi, pulls out a digital camera and snaps a picture. “Nature is beautiful,” he says. “People who live in Bangkok don’t get to see this many trees or mountains. Here, I can feel nature and fresh air.”

On the hike, students also see and understand first-hand how elephants live a natural lifestyle that is thrown into disarray when humans appear. When cultivated crops spring up, for example, elephants deviate from their normal consumption behaviour, preferring to feed on fields of pineapples, bananas, and papayas instead of vines and creepers.

“This area of 7,000 rai that wild elephants inhabit is surrounded by village communities,” said Kosol. “The elephants are trapped in the middle and can’t go anywhere.”

While villagers tell students about several techniques being used to ward off wild elephants, one student raises her hand and speaks out. “Why don’t you try using herbal scents like citronella grass that can repel mosquitoes? There’s got to be some scents that elephants don’t like. Burning elephants’ droppings and ground chili peppers will destroy the environment,” she says, referring to one of the methods being used by villagers.

Sittichoke Nuamcharoen demonstrates his drawing talents.

The kind of thought-provoking response described above reflects an increasing understanding about nature conservation among students at the camp. While all of the youngsters appreciate nature for its beauty, many show a real concern for the environment and offer to do more than practise what they have been taught in schools.

For example, Sittichoke Nuamcharoen, a Mathayom 4 student from Pa Deng Wittaya school, comes equipped with a drawing pad and a pencil. He finds great fascination in nature and when he sees something of interest, he quickly opens his drawing pad and starts sketching.

“I would like people to be interested in my drawings and learn to sustain nature through art,” he said. “If we destroy nature, nothing will be left for us to witness.” Sittichoke feels he has learned to respect the lives of elephants and how they live in the wild. “I feel that I love this community more than ever before,” he said.

According to Kosol Saengthong, the real challenge behind environmental camps is to make sure that the knowledge students have gained from the camp will stick with them once they go home. To Kosol, Bangkok children view nature as simply something pretty to look at and play in, while upcountry children, having grown up in families that farm and cultivate crops, see nature as sustainable and available.

“What we are trying to do is form an environmental network through students and through the website so that city kids and local kids can exchange ideas and continue to explore environmental issues,” he said.

With projects like this aimed at the young, local Kaeng Krachan communities have begun to develop an awareness of environmental and natural conservation issues — and regard elephants as, at the very worst, friendly competitors rather than outright enemies.

The trip also teaches students that there is more to conservation that just recycling. It makes them feel the presence of nature and realise how one thing is often dependent on another. In other words, the fate of the elephants — good or bad — could one day be the fate of man.