Trees for Elephants has really started in Khao Yai
March is the month things finally start rolling. Like a snowball, small yet but getting bigger and bigger as we are making progress. It’s time to put ideas into action now. Time to make preparations for our first treeplantingcamp in May in Khao Yai. March 1st the poles for the treenursery were hit into the ground and the first 7.500 trees were being ordered. I’m spending three days at Khao Yai to help WERF and to discuss the next steps. I’ve just got there when a truck with the first 2.400 little trees arrives. All afternoon we are working in the treenursery, deciding were to put what, planting trees, testing the irrigationsystem. With the current irrigationsystem all of the village would be out of water in no time. Oops! Alongkot orders an excavator to dig out an existing nearby waterpool. Using groundwater will be cheaper and more ecological.
Everyone’s very excited as the last trees have been put into the soil. Trees for Elephants in Khao Yai has made it’s start! The trees for elephants are groing. Looking at those cute little trees I fantasize what they would look like ten years from now. Alongkot on the other hand is thinking more about here and now. These are just 2.400 trees, the current nursery will not be able to hold 25.000 trees like we expected. Well… then we just hit some extra poles into the ground and extend it a little.
At WERF it’s sort of a tradition to make some music before having dinner. Everyone has got his own instrument and composes music as well. Specially for Trees for Elephants 10 songs are being composed! New volunteer task: playing music for the young trees. This will make them stronger and healthier. But today some battle songs are being played, like green heart, about people who fight for a better environment.
The next morning we have a teammeeting about the program of the treeplantingcamp. Everything is worked out into detail. It’s not just an ecological but also an intensive educational program. The children joining the camp will learn all about elephants: anatomy, history, their behaviour, how they live in the jungle and how elephants could be protected. In between lessons there will be lots of entertainment for the children to keep them enthousiastic. My presentation will be about the special relation between elephants and trees. I sure can tell them a lot about that! Apart from theory the practical lessons are very important ofcourse: planting the little trees! The munk proposes to invite all his colleague munks to help planting after the camp is over. Alongkot is considering to invite all other nearby schools to come and help us as well. It will be allright, I think.
Because the first camp will be in May, there are more concerns. The ground has to be prepared. How will we get sufficient water for the trees? How far away from the campsite is the ground located and is it easy accessible? We jump into a jeep to go take a look. The headmunk welcomes us into his forest temple. One hundred and twenty children? No problem. We can put tents up underneath the lychee trees, there are sufficient sanitary facilities and the temple is big enough to give our lessons. He is very excited about the treeplanting, he has already managed to get tractors to work the land, there is water available from a number of places, but not enough tools for everyone to plant the trees. The team is relieved to hear about the tractors and available water, cause renting tractors and arranging watersupply would cost a bit.
Together with the munk we go inspect the land. Allthough the munk says it’s 450 rai it looks a lot bigger than that. To the south it borders the National Park, and on two sides it is bordered by private territory. The elephants often walk onto the temple grounds in search for food, or to walk further to nearby plantations. Local farmers aren’t happy with that at all. The headmunk brings us to his new home, a little hut on top of some firm high poles, in the middle of the forest. He has built this hut uphigh because his previous hut has been destroyed by wild elephants, he tells us laughing. Just a bit further we come to a flattened toiletfacility and former munks hut which roof has been destroyed.
I carefully ask him what he would think if there would come even more elephants here. After all this will be trees for elephants. He would be more than happy he says, and by creating more space and food here for the elephants conflicts with neighbouring farmers will be avoided. A teammember whispers that the munk loves elephants a lot. Apart from the perfect location we have obviously found the right partner as well. Back in the jeep everyone’s very enthousiastic. New ideas arise immediately: we need more volunteers to prepare and coordinate the activities. We start making a program for them. And now search for volunteers!
Antoinette
Would you like to join as a volunteer. Here you will find all the information you need!
Would you like to buy some trees for elephants yourself (10 trees for 10 euro’s) click here.
