Relief workers rescue a panda cub at Wolong after the devastating earthquake. Courtesy of Wolong Nature Reserve

Even a year after the Sichuan tragedy, professional observers who travel to the Wolong Nature Reserve say there is an aura of trauma hovering over the giant pandas, living on the reserve.

They still seem a bit shaken up, says Timothy Ng, the Zoological Operations & Education Director at Hong Kong's Ocean Park. Ng has been actively involved in a massive rehabilitation program at the reserve to which the people of Hong Kong have contributed HK$2 billion.

The beloved pandas are national treasures and their well being is of concern to all Chinese.

Construction began this month to replace the world famous panda habitat. It had to be replaced. The old structures crumbled in the quake.

One of the pandas that went missing immediately after the tremor, later was found dead under the ruins of the structure. The construction of the new panda habitat alone will cost 1 billion yuan.

Hong Kong is one of the major contributors to the program. The reserve holds top priority among numerous Hong Kong-funded reconstruction projects in the quake devastated region.

The new panda base, in the Huangcaoping area just 10km from Wolong's former center, is the site for 25 projects funded by Hong Kong. Not far away from the major reconstruction, in a city nearby, a special disease control center is to be built.

Just getting into the reserve remains difficult. Part of Hong Kong's contribution will go toward rebuilding a 4.5- kilometer stretch of road devastated by the quake.

Carrie Lam, secretary for development and a member of the delegation to Sichuan, explained that the construction of the road is essential, recalling that relief workers needed to climb two large mountains and traverse 350 kilometres before arriving at the reserve.

Film photo from "Trail of the Panda", a Disney movie which features a 10-year-old boy star who helps a lost panda cub return to its mother. File photo

Ocean Park has pitched in to help rebuild the panda habitats. The theme park launched a fund to help repair the bases and has allocated HK$2.6 million to purchase relief items to help panda workers in the rebuilding effort.

The fund is being used to procure relief supplies like temporary homes, sleeping bags, water purification tablets and power-generating machines for relief workers.

Pandas feed on bamboo stalks that grow at altitudes between 2,500 meters and 3,200 meters, says Timothy Ng. With most bamboo forests destroyed, the pandas are forced to descend the mountain, sometimes entering human-populated areas to find food.

The Ocean Park Zoological operation director said that the pandas previously housed on the Wolong Nature Reserve are now relocated to a panda base in Yaan and are being well taken care of. They are eating properly and all are in good health.

But the pandas in Yaan are only a small portion of the many affected by the quake, he said.

The rebuilding process could last years, Ng added, since much of the panda habitat, not just the structurcal facilities, was destroyed.

He called for the public to join in by making contributions through the park's conservation fund website to helprepair panda bases.

A government spokesman said 122 reconstruction projects in Sichuan were being funded by the Hong Kong government.

He said the rebuilding of Giant Panda Research Center in Wolong as well as the Giant Panda Rescue and Disease Prevention Center in Dujiangyan was scheduled to be completed at the end of 2011. It would cost the Hong Kong government around 225 million yuan, he said. Hong Kong government had so far committed about HK$5.8 billion for the reconstruction projects.

A nature reserve worker makes a tombstone for one of the pandas who died in the May 12 earthquake last year. Courtesy of Wolong Nature Reserve

(HK Edition 05/12/2009 page3)