WHILE other students were away having a nice relaxing school holiday, they were sticking their hands and feet into mud to do the environment some good.

About 40 students from SMK Teloi Kanan, Kedah, travelled to Teluk Rubiah, Kuala Gula, a fishing village in the Kerian district in Perak, to plant over 1,000 mangrove seedlings and 500 seeds during the recent school holidays.

The students were participating in an educational and environmental programme organised by Global Environment Centre (GEC), Sahabat Hutan Bakau and their school.

Upon reaching the mangrove nursery at Teluk Rubiah on Aug 17, the students helped to prepare the nursery beds and transport seedlings to the planting site.

At night, they viewed a video presentation on the Kuala Gula Bird Sanctuary at the Wildlife Department Centre and attended an educational talk on the area’s importance as a bird sanctuary by GEC northern region coordinator Balu Perumal.

The following morning saw the two-hour seedling planting programme.

It was the first planting exercise under GEC’s one-year Kuala Gula Mangrove Rehabilitation Project.
 
The project is aimed at rehabilitating the degraded mangrove area and improving the surrounding habitat to protect nearby coastal villages from storms and tsunami.

The activity also contributed to SMK Teloi Kanan’s Tree Planting Campaign which targeted to plant 10,000 trees this year.