Myanmar is a country in South-east Asia, nestled between India, Bangladesh,China, Laos and Thailand. The country is famous for its vast forests, which provideimportant habitats for wildlife. Sadly, today many of these forests are being cutdown by humans to make way for farms or to use the wood to make buildings, paperor furniture. This is called deforestation.

From 1824 to 1948, Myanmar was a colony of the British Empire and the countrywas renamed Burma. On 4th January 1948, Myanmar celebrated its independence.Throughout this book, we will refer to it as Myanmar.

Before the British arrived, Myanmar had grown all its own food, mostly on smallfarms. Under British rule, it became a land of trade and export, selling goodsand resources to other countries all over the world. Although the country sawgrowth and development, most of the wealth was enjoyed by the British Empireand disrupted the way of life for the people of Myanmar. The negative impacts ofthe British occupation of Myanmar are still felt in the country today.

This story takes place when the British Empire profited by exploiting Myanmar'sland, which was rich in natural resources such as oil, gas, jade, rubies, tin and, mostimportantly for our story, timber.

Timber was Myanmar's most valuable resource, especially the exotic hardwood teak.This rich nut- brown wood was highly valued because of its strength, waterresistance and beauty. It was perfect for building ships and other hard-wearingobjects. Since much of the world's teak originated from Myanmar's forests, it is nowillegal to sell it to other countries.

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Excerpted from Bandoola: the Great Elephant Rescue by William Grill
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