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| Sunday, 27 February 2005 |
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Junior Observer |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Artistic elephants You may have seen elephants being used in peraheras, in zoos and circuses and as beasts of burden to lift heavy loads and carry out difficult tasks. In the aftermath of the tsunami, we read about elephants being used to clear the debris in Thailand. But, have you heard of elephants putting their artistic talents to use? This is what the pachyderms in Thailand are doing. Eight elephants along with their art teachers and mahouts (handlers) were painting a 12 X 2.4 metre canvas entitled 'Cold winds, swirling mists and the charms of Lanna' at the Mae Sa Elephant Camp in Chiang Mai. The idea behind the project is to break the Guinness record for the 'World's Most Expensive Painting by a Group of Elephants'. The organisers of the project hope to find a buyer for these paintings, who will break the existing record for the price paid for drawings done by elephants. The project aims to highlight the plight of Asian elephants whose population is dwindling at an alarming rate. Courtesy: Sawasdee ############ Disaster risk management in curriculum The National Institute of Education in association with the GTZ Basic Education Sector Programme has launched a project to incorporate school-based disaster risk management into the national school curriculum to prepare schoolchildren to protect themselves in situations like the recent tsunami. The subject covers topics such as country strategy, national curriculum and quick impact solutions.They are expected to be integrated into the existing curriculum and not as a separate subject. A recent presentation made in this regard stressed the need for immediate, as well as mid and long-term action in risk analysis, disaster prevention, disaster preparedness and raising school awareness. The objective of the presentation was to arrive at a decision on a suitable action plan for the future. ############ Horowpathana Forest now a national park The Horowpathana Forest will be the latest jungle area to be declared a national park in Sri Lanka. Fifty thousand acres of the forest will thus come under the proposed Horowpathana National Park, which will extend to the Kantale Tank Bund on one side, and to Kinniya, Trincomalee, on the other side. The area has a rich bio-diversity comprising rare herbs of medicinal value, timber, tanks and waterways, migrant birdlife and plants which can be consumed by the animals in the forest. The forest receives the highest rainfall in the Anuradhapura district and is home for many varieties of animals such as leopards, elephants (about 400 are estimated to roam the area), deer, sambhur, bears, rabbits and mouse-deer. It is due to this reason that the Department of Wildlife Conservation has been instructed to initiate action immediately to declare the area as a national park. The Horowpathana National Park is expected to bring in additional income to the country through visitors, help minimise the human-elephant conflict in the area, and protect villagers' cultivations and curb the illegal meat trade. Also, the park can be promoted as a new tourist destination which will bring in increased revenues to the country. ############ Kyoto Protocol in force The Kyoto Protocol, the world plan to fight global warming, was enforced on February 16, after years of delay. The plan, hailed by some as a lifeline for Planet Earth, but criticised by some quarters, especially developed countries such as the United States and Australia as a barrier to economic development, was finally put into force after years of debating. The official ceremony was held in the ancient Japanese city of Kyoto, where the pact was signed in 1997. According to environmental groups and the United Nations, the pact, signed by 141 nations, is an important first step in trying to limit the increasingly higher temperatures, rising seas and greater extremes of weather. But some developed nations are against the pact, saying that it is unfair as it excludes the major developing nations, India, China and Brazil, whose growing economies comprise more than a third of the world population. The Protocol is the first legally binding plan to tackle climate change, and builds on a scheme launched at the Earth Summit in 1992 to stabilise emissions at 1990 levels by 2000, a goal which has, so far, not been met. Kyoto aims to reduce the rise in temperatures, widely blamed on human emissions of heat-trapping gases that may lead to more hurricanes, floods and droughts and could drive thousands of species of animals and plants to extinction by 2100. Under the pact, developed nations have to cut their emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels in power plants, factories and cars, by 5.2 per cent below the 1990 levels by 2008-12. But it was weakened by a 2001 pull-out by the United States, a leading polluter and source of almost a quarter of human emissions of carbon dioxide. |
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