The third season of an SOS travelling exhibition themed “Asian
Elephants” to call for the protection of wildlife and Asian elephants in
particular was launched at the Dong Khoi Junior High School in
Ho Chi Minh City, on September 26.
The activity
is jointly organised by the Wildlife At Risk (WAR), the Department of
Education and Training, and the Forest Protection Department of HCM
City.
An estimated 30,000 students in the city’s
Tan Phu, Tan Binh, Binh Tan and Go Vap districts will have the chance to
see the exhibition during the 2013 – 2014 school year.
First held in December 2011, the exhibition has so far travelled to 48
secondary schools across HCM City and received a positive
response from 30,000 students and teachers.
WAR
Director Nguyen Vu Khoi said that in the past time, his organisation has
coordinated with relevant agencies to deal with many law violations
relating to wild animals reported by students and local people, which
reflects the effectiveness of education on wildlife protection.
Statistics from WAR show that up to 28 wild and 10 domesticated
elephants died in Vietnam during the past four years. Many of them
were killed for their skin, meat, tusks and tail hairs.
The population of wild Asian elephants in the country was estimated at between 75 – 130 individuals in 2010.-VNA