Paper pandas debut at Sanam Luang

Paper pandas debut at Sanam Luang

People take pictures of 1,600 paper-mache pandas at Sanam Luang on Friday. (Photo by Patipat Janthong)
People take pictures of 1,600 paper-mache pandas at Sanam Luang on Friday. (Photo by Patipat Janthong)

Campaigners to save the panda hope that taking hundreds of replicas on a grand tour of Thailand will help inspire Thai people to do more for endangered species.

The 1,600 papier-mache pandas made their first appearance on Friday at Sanam Luang in Bangkok, attracting curious spectators and photographers in droves. Funds to be raised from the campaign will be used to help other endangered animals in the country.

"Funds we receive from the programme will help us save the remaining population of Bengal tigers and elephants which are now on the brink of extinction," said Yowalak Thiarachow, country director of the World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF) Thailand.

The number of pandas sculpted in various sizes, poses and emotions represents the total number left in the world today. They were designed by the French artist Paulo Grangeon and created using recycled paper.

They arrived in Bangkok as part of a world tour to raise awareness of panda conservation and environmental preservation.

Thailand has two real pandas, Xuang Xuang and Lin Hui, at the Chiang Mai Zoo. The animals are on loan from China until 2023.

But the country is facing a shrinking number of other wild animals and the WWF pointed to Bengal tigers and wild elephants as its prime concern.

According to its recent survey, the number of tigers living in the wild in Thailand has fallen to 200, a drop from 250 in 2012. The number of wild elephants is stable at around 3,000, it added. The number of wild elephants is in line with a report of the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre, which put the figure between 2,000 and 3,0000.

The exhibition is organised by Central Embassy, together with the Tourism Authority of Thailand and Bangkok Metropolitan Administration.

It was first launched in France in 2008 and has since been staged in the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and South Korea.

After Sanam Luang, the pandas will go to CentralWorld and other locations with Central Embassy as their last stop from March 24 to April 10.

The scheduled panda tour in Bangkok starts at Sanam Luang on Friday and ends at Central Embassy on April 10.

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