Anya de Saram-Larssen was never afraid of BIG things. As a child she used to follow her grandmother into the wilderness, hunting for flora and fauna. Their outdoor ventures inspired the young lass and kindled her passion for nature and conservation.
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| British School in Colombo Principal Dr John Scarth |
“She was extremely fond of nature and would stress on the fact that it needs to be protected. I was motivated by her words and began to engage in projects related to wildlife and environment conservation,” Anya explained.
The 13 year old student of the British School in Colombo was recently named among 19 young activists who are recipients of 2018 International Young Eco-Hero Awards for their impactful environmental projects addressing climate change, energy conservation, wildlife protection, landfill waste, and water pollution. The recipients are selected by the San Francisco-based nonprofit Action for Nature for their creative projects aimed at solving the world’s environmental problems. They range from 8 to 16 years and come from countries like the USA, Australia, Canada, Columbia, Peru, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, and the United Arab Emirates. Anya was the only South Asian among the awardees.
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| Interior of the EleBus |
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Going on a safari to Wasgamuwa National Park Identifying birds |
Taking an elephantine leap and getting herself involved the awareness and prevention of the human-elephant conflict happened by chance with a random Google search. Anya had come across the project initiated by the Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society (SLWCS) to raise funds for an elefriendly bus to transport school children in Wasgamuwa.
“I was really taken by their work and wanted to do my bit to help them to turn their vision into a reality. I organized a Bake Sale at my school and gave all the proceeds to the project,” she recalled with a note of enthusiasm.
The bus is now on the road, running its routine through a zone which has once been noted as an area in which many human-elephant conflicts have occurred. Since the introduction of the Elephant-friendly Bus aka ’EleBus’, the number of incidents reported have taken a nose dive.
“It is especially designed to take school children to and from school. However grownups too travel to work on it. There are many slogans written in the interior of the bus advising its travels about the human-elephant conflict,” Anya said.
Speaking about some of the facts she learnt while being involved in the project Anya says that one needs to keep calm if they see an elephant emerging. If there is a frenzy, it will excite the beast and provoke it to take action.
Taking one step further the half-Norwegian, half Sri Lankan youth organized a conservation camp in Wasgamuwa together with SLWCS. Not only did it manage to get youth involved in conservation work, it was also the first of its kind to be held in around a decade.
Unfurling her thoughts about the camp Anya says that she and a group of six school children from different schools learnt all the field techniques. They also had firsthand experience on learning why it is important to protect nature. The camp was a week long and the youth were able to interact with researchers and activists as well and gleaned many facts about conservation in terms of other species.
She had applied for the Young Eco Award because she wished to raise more awareness about the human-elephant conflict. She was interviewed and later selected for the honourable mention for her project Youth Against Human-Elephant Conflict in the 13 to 16 age group.
“I believe that it is vital for the future generation to know about the issues in our surroundings. Since man has done a lot of damage to mother nature, the time has come for youth to help rebuild it and save it for the next generations. Winning the award has helped me realize that there is much more that I could do because others who have won it engage in work that are different from mine. I am also glad that a spotlight had fallen on the conservation work done in Sri Lanka,” Anya said adding that more camps need to be held so that youth will be able to learn more about the wonders of nature through interaction.
Speaking about Anya’s achievement the Principal of British School in Colombo Dr John Scarth said that the teenager is an example to other youth. He said that she had emerged a winner through her efforts and had proven that no dream is too big to achieve.
“We are happy to be a part of her triumph and we motivate many more students to join hands for such worthy causes,” he said.
Anya is gearing up for her next venture: raising funds for a research vessel to conduct research on the water for SLWCS. They hope to find out about the impact of climate change on aquatic flora and fauna with the equipment. Her ambition is to become an astrobiologist.
“That profession too is related to wildlife since it is finding about life on another planet,” she concluded with a smile.
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