![]() They’ve become the collective animal protectors of the Cox’s Bazar refugee camps, reporting dozens of instances of illegal wild animal captures around the camps to the forestry department and teaching other refugees about animals’ well-being. “They are a brotherhood.”Īnd through their efforts to protect both people and elephants, the task force has also inadvertently created another bright spot. “The 550 Rohingya men who have been trained are quite confident the system is working,” he says. He’s particularly proud of the elephant task force. By early next year, they aim to be supplying fuel to every single household in the camps.Īnd although the long-term risks remain grave and will take a tremendous amount of diplomacy, cooperation, and financial support to be resolved, Amin is proud of the work that all parties have done so far. In addition to the success seen with the elephant watch group, UNHCR has started giving cooking fuel to refugees, to prevent clearing more forest for firewood. In the meantime, Amin, Hoque, and others remain committed to doing what they can. He and the UNHCR team are working on bringing people from both governments together to discuss options, but he is the first to admit that it will be a long road. The elephants’ fate in part depends on the thawing of a geopolitical and humanitarian situation so deeply fraught, complex, and mired in tragedy that it will take tremendous government cooperation to overcome, Amin says. “It means that if we want to open the corridor, we need to start discussing with the Myanmar government to open the international border as well,” Amin says. Amin and his team have received reports that two elephants on the Myanmar side have already been killed by landmines. To prevent the Rohingya people from returning to their homes, Myanmar has erected extensive border fencing and-even more ominous and certainly more invisible-landmines, according to media reports. UNHCR and the IUCN plan to work together with the Asian Elephant Specialist Group, an IUCN-affiliated global network of specialists focused on the study, monitoring, management, and conservation of Asian elephants, to outfit a few members of the elephant population with GPS collars so they can track their movements and learn more about their behaviors.īut even if everything goes according to plan-the GPS collar tracking is a success the groups are able to somehow move 100,000 people and buildings and relocate them without decimating the remaining forest and the elephants actually use the re-established corridor-the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar remains a problem. “This is my fourth year at Art on the Mall.Then there’s the fact that no one actually knows all that much about these particular elephants-how they live, when exactly they migrate, or even why.īefore anything else happens, says the UNHCR’s Hoque, the groups need to try to understand more about how these elephants live. “I enjoy showing my work at art fairs Art on the Mall is one of the best: well-organized friendly, competent volunteers and an excellent location on campus,” he said. 98, located near the Health and Human Services Building. The juried art fair will be held Sunday, July 30, from 10 a.m. Though visitors aren’t able to visit Louie at the Toledo Zoo, they can still pick up greeting cards made from Brand’s sketch, and the original sketch, at Art on the Mall. Zoo staff are hopeful that transfers such as these will serve a large role in saving the endangered species. He resides with a herd of six other elephants rescued from Africa amid a severe drought. Louie, born in 2003 at a whopping 275 pounds, recently was transferred to Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium in Omaha, Neb. Last, I made fine lines to show the creases around his eyes that give him the appearance of wisdom.” I paid special attention to his face as that is where character is. Then I carefully outlined his body shape and used shading to give volume and character. He described his artistic process: “I set up opposite him and laid out a sketch as usual, using a 2B drawing pencil, first noting the length and height of his body, the relative sizes of his head, ears and trunk, and the length of his legs compared to his height at his shoulder. While Louie ate his breakfast, Brand studied the elephant’s features. Happily, Louie held still for about 30 minutes while eating an enormous amount of hay.” Subject matter is mostly the interesting architecture the animals would make great pictures if they would hold still. Paul Brand, who drew this sketch of Louie the elephant, will have a booth at Art on the Mall Sunday, July 30.Though Brand was able to expertly capture Louie in his sketch, he pointed out that wild animals don’t always make the easiest subject matter: “Sketching at the zoo is fun, but challenging.
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