Bangkok's Sanam Luang Plans Met With Opposition

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Sanam Luang plans met with opposition

By Mayuree Sukyingcharoenwong,

Jeerawan Prasomsap

The Nation

Published on February 2, 2010

BANGKOK: -- Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) yesterday started clearing Sanam Luang as part of a 300day campaign to beautify the site, an operation that involves the capturing of pigeons, keeping cars off the site and cracking down on street hawkers and homeless people.

However, the plan to move the 10,000 or so pigeons to Ratchaburi has been met with opposition from birdfeed vendors and Ratchaburi residents.

The vendors booed and jeered, while some set off firecrackers nearby, as BMA workers fed the birds near a large cage as they prepared to capture them.

A middleaged birdfeed vendor said this was like an assault on poor people because it hurt their livelihoods. She added that she had borrowed from a loan shark to invest in the business, but since she had only been given a twoweek notice, she had no time to find other work.

"No matter what they say, I'll continue to sell birdfeed here. If they can arrest me if they want, but this work helps me support my family and raise my kids. What else would I do if I can't do this? Such a short notice leaves no room for the 100 or so vendors to find other jobs. They never ask the public whether or not a project like this would affect them," she said.

Another 52yearold vendor, who has been earning Bt200 to Bt300 a day by selling birdfeed over the past two decades, said she would keep selling her wares until she can figure out what to do next.

"If they really want to put order to the area, they should clean it and set clear zones for parking, selling goods and public activities, instead of sealing it off and affecting people," she said.

Meanwhile, BMA Deputy Governor Theerachon Manomaipiboon said the pigeons should be captured in two weeks and will be moved to boot camps in Ratchaburi and Prachin Buri.

President of the Friendship Association for Pigeon Racing, Neti Tantimontri, said officials would feed the birds every afternoon for about 10 days before capturing and screening them for disease, and then sending them off to the camps. He said vendors setting off firecrackers blocked the task.

BMA Deputy Governor Pornthep Techapaibul said that BMA did not wish to bully any groups or stop any crowdgathering activities.

The redshirt protesters' tents could remain in Sanam Luang until an army of workers takes over the area on March 1 for the landscaping, he said.

The BMA will move the affected vendors to an area in Khlong Lot, which will be run by the Phra Nakhon District Office. The BMA has also set the area under the Rama VIII Bridge, the Southern Bus Terminal and the Buddhamonthol 12 for the parking of tourist buses and cars, he said.

BMA Deputy Governor Thaya Theepasuwan said the city was also working with related agencies to find temporary shelters for the homeless within 28 days and is offering vocational training for those wishing to find jobs.

Meanwhile, Ratchaburi Governor Suthep Komonporn said that he had not yet been told about the decision to move Sanam Luang's pigeons to the province, but had learned that the residents were not happy about it. Residents are concerned that the birds will bring disease to the area and that they will have an adverse impact on the environment. The governor said there should be a discussion about the pros and cons of the plan, and the BMA should offer explanations as to why it thinks Ratchaburi would be a suitable home for the birds.

Ratchaburi MP Samart Piriyapanyaporn said residents had also complained to him about the plans. "The province has its own problems, and things should not be worsened by moving the birds here," he said, adding that the concerns had been conveyed to the BMA.

Ratchaburi MP Pareena Kraikub told a press conference yesterday that Ratchaburi residents objected to the birds being moved there because they would ruin the rice fields and spread avian flu. She added that if the concerns were not acted upon, the residents would start staging protests.

In related news, the Four Regions Slum Network adviser Prathin Vegavakayanon criticised the project, saying it was like "sweeping dirt under the rug" and adding a second blow to the homeless people. She said that some 100 people used Sanam Luang as a shelter every night.

She said BMA had not differentiated between the three types of homeless people: those who were in Bangkok to find work but hadn't yet; city residents who lived outside because of family problems or earned their livelihood through scavenging; and slackers who preferred to do odd jobs for food. While the first group would fit the proposed solution, it won't work for the second and third groups. She urged the city to find proper solutions rather than proceeding the project which would only "sweep dirt under the rug".

-- The Nation 2010-02-02

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[markwhite]

I was caught by the birdfeeders a few years back when I was a little greener.

They offered a bag for sale and I accepted one and started feeding the birds. Which went a bit mad and crowded round. As did a couple more vendors, helpfully pouring more bags of birdfeed into my hand as the birds were eating it all. After maybe 30 seconds of this, I realised I'd been given about 8 bags of feed and refusd to accept any more. Then I found out it was 20 baht a bag...

I can see how they make 200-300 baht a day. It is a shame that people do get scammed like this, but then I'm also of the view that people only learn from their mistakes and the scammers certainly helped me to learn my lesson and to be a bit more aware of these sorts of things in the future. So I saw it as no big deal and laughed it off and still feel the same way.

[Moruya]

Since the emergence of the red shirts vs yellow shirts conflict, it's all been a bit too serious on here. How I long for the days when stories about guys having sex with banana plants and/or dogs or auto-eroticism with a cobra were the highlight of the day.

Today we have the case of the government vs 10,000 pigeons. There is a sub-plot with the demise of the poor birdfood sellers setting off fire crackers to frighten the pigeons away to pevent their capture and preserve their income and a twist of yet more tourist scamming. Soon we'll be hearing that the people who are being paid to remove the birds (the homing pigeon chaps no less) now have a job for life as (surprise, surprise!) the birds return en-masse only to be moved on once again.

TIT

[Bagwan]

I suggest that the birdseed sellers issue all pigeons with maps of Thailand and directions to follow to get back to Sanam Luang.

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UPDATE

BMA cancels plan to relocate pigeons to Ratchaburi

BANGKOK: -- Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) Tuesday backed down on the plan to send some 10,000 pigeons from Sanam Luang to Ratchaburi province following oppositions from locals.

The Sanam Luang landscaping project committee's working team on pigeon issue would discuss for other solution as to where to move the birds to, said BMA Deputy Governor Theerachon Manomaipiboon.

Initially, President of the Friendship Association for Pigeon Racing, Neti Tantimontri, has offered to take the birds to be raised in the thousands-rai plot in Soi Lat Phrao 87, he said.

-- The Nation 2010-02-02

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UPDATE

Outcry makes BMA think of Plan B for for pigeon plan B

By The Nation

Published on February 3, 2010

BANGKOK: -- Bangkok authorities backed down yesterday on their plan to move some 10,000 wild pigeons from Sanam Luang - the big field adjacent to the Grand Palace - to Ratchaburi following an outcry from locals.

The committee working on clearing the pigeons so Sanam Luang can be landscaped would discuss alternatives for where the birds could go, Deputy Governor Theerachon Manomaipiboon said.

Neti Tantimontri, president of the Friendship Association for Pigeon Racing, had tentatively offered to take the birds to an area with thousands of rai on Lat Phrao Soi 87, he said.

Many academics and animal rights advocates had criticised the city's "cruel" plan to move the birds away, so Theerachon said they would be raised in a closed farm, segregated by gender to prevent breeding, and taken care of until they died of natural causes.

They would not be shiftedand let free in other areas.

Experts from the pigeon association were working on the project to relocate the birds and they were well qualified as they handled the transport of 10,000 racing birds on a monthly basis.

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration's plan to clear the pigeons from Sanam Luang was aimed at containing diseases they carried, such as encephalitis, which kills over 10 people a year.

The pigeons would be treated for parasites, fungi and mites before being sent to the closed farm.

However, he believed some of the birds would escape and hang around Sanam Luang after the project, so he urged people not to feed the birds.

The suggestion by academics to feed the pigeons a drug to sterilise them and stop them reproducing wouldn't solve the problem as the drug was expensive, he said.

Residents in Prachin Buri, which was an original destination for the Sanam Luang pigeons, had also objected to the plan.

Malisorn Chainongwa, 48, from Prachantakham district, said she didn't want the pigeons released there because she feared they might transmit avian diseases and have an impact on the environment.

She said an outbreak of bird-carried diseases could drive tourists away from the province's natural attractions.

-- The Nation 2010-02-03

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[brahmburgers]

There's a v. large aviary at C.Mai's zoo which is not being used. Seriously though, birds have wings, and unless they're caged, they can fly where the heck they want (ever heard of homing pigeons?). If they know there's food at S.Luang, that's where they'll return to.

The story gives a glimpse of the people at or near the bottom rungs of the social ladder (bird seed sellers), or those that have fallen off (homeless) - and accentuates a contrast with a bureaucracy that has blundered its way in to spending billions of baht for useless things like aircraft carrier that doesn't function or massive concrete and steel structures going out to Don Muang Airport which have never been used for anything. Meanwhile, pitifully little 'safety nets' for the people mentioned in the OP.

For people at the bottom rungs, there should be programs where they can contribute in positive ways to society and get decent compensation. Sewing, sweeping sidewalks, caring for elderly, planting trees, ....whatever.

It's good the authorities are thinking of getting the vehicles off the property. Doubtful if they'll actually be effective in that pursuit.

[mccw]

I suggest that the birdseed sellers issue all pigeons with maps of Thailand and directions to follow to get back to Sanam Luang.

Aren't pigeons homing creatures anyway?

ridiculas policy

[animatic]

Relocating them enmass to Ratchaburi is less humain than

putting them in closed off, gender restricted, non-breeding, farms until they die?????

Boggles the mind the extremes of stupidity they seem to jump to daily.

Not all pigeons are homing pigeons.

Edited February 3, 2010 by animatic

[Moruya]

There are, of course, several other options:

Put them all in a large boat, throw a net over the top and push it out to sea.

Repatriate them to Lao or Burma

Send them as a peace offering to Hun Sen in Cambodia

Send them to Thaksin in place of his confiscated assets

Give them to Yongyuth Doo Yen for target practice

[Bagwan]

How does one round up pigeons? To combat the menace that the huge flocks in Trafalgar Square presented, the option tried out in an instalment of the Goon Show was using exploding bird lime. How about acquiring a few birds of prey? Trained to return to base on completing a mission of course. How about extolling the virtues and tastiness of pigeon pie? Meals, not on wheels, but on the wing for the plebs. Exit stage left the birds while providing sustenance for the poor and hungry.