Clear felling of hundreds of old growth trees in Phuket...dear God...

[fatdrunkandstupid]

Well, I have arrived home from my Sunday ride and I feel physically ill.

Over the last few months I posted in the thread below discussing how a whole mountainside of National Park land next to Nai Thon beach was stripped bare by bulldozers and a team of hundreds of burmese day laborers. I can not fathom how such a visible and large scale crime goes absolutely unchallenged.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/708141-nai-thon-beachs-raw-sewage-black-river-yum/

But today, I have witnessed the final straw that confirms to me that I must leave Phuket. The place has just become too sad...

I have been out of Phuket for a couple of weeks. I flew up to Isaan and rode a giant loop from Udon-Mukdahan-Nakon Phanom-Nong Khai-Udon. I saw some amazing parts of Thailand and met some wonderful Thai people.

But in my two short weeks away, Phuket has been dealt an environmental death blow.

One of last remaining areas to escape the traffic and overdevelopment was Layan national park, but now, at the entrance, a huge new (toilet block architecture) disaster has been erected called Nikki Beach. I am not sure if it is a bar, restaurant, resort...nor do the managers know either. It is a giant, ugly, and misguided blight on what was one of the few remaining undeveloped areas of this dying island.

But as abhorent as that new development is...that is not what compelled me to start this thread.

As I shook my head in disgust at Nikki Beach, I rode up a little further North to the next soi that runs in past the big estuary that is lined with thick stands of giant Ton Son (pine trees). At the end of that soi there is a small beach with access to Koh Kata...and if you know the spot a small fresh water waterfall.

Anyway I never made it to the beach as blocking the road in was a truck fitted with a giant logging claw and remote operated chainsaw.

The DELETED are clear felling EVERY one of the big old trees along the waterway. Ripping them out like they were toothpicks.

That once lovely forested area now looks like a scene from War of the Worlds. Scorched bare earth dotted with the savaged stumps of those old and lovely trees.

I am not a tree hugger. I was born and grew up in the bush and I am well aware of the realities of life.

But dear God Phuket...enough is enough.

And why have I put this in the General forum. Because corruption is not just limited to Phuket...it is a disease that is destroying has destroyed this once beautiful country.

Edited April 7, 2014 by Rooo
profanity

[inzman]

It's so sad to see how rampant greed is in this country. They can't understand that short term profits don't outway long term destruction to the environment. What is even more sad is that the public is blind to it. They don't want to get involved. It's past the point of no return, the environment has been permanently destroyed.

[johnbits]

I thought Phuket was pretty, but I didn't care to stay there.

It wasn't very a very Thai place, more like a farang beach resort. And I can go to a farang beach resort much closer to home.

Sad yes, but this was an issue that was settled a long time ago for Phuket, a few of the last remained natural parks. I wouldn't go to Phuket to see Layan national park, so I suppose that it was already a lost cause a decade ago.

No doubt they had Government permits, I have seen others go to jail in phetchabun for cutting old growth timber without an official Government permit.

Sad but a lost cause a long time ago.

[Showbags]

Thai's are tree murderers...pure and simple.

[fatdrunkandstupid]

I thought Phuket was pretty, but I didn't care to stay there.

It wasn't very a very Thai place, more like a farang beach resort. And I can go to a farang beach resort much closer to home.

Sad yes, but this was an issue that was settled a long time ago for Phuket, a few of the last remained natural parks. I wouldn't go to Phuket to see Layan national park, so I suppose that it was already a lost cause a decade ago.

No doubt they had Government permits, I have seen others go to jail in phetchabun for cutting old growth timber without an official Government permit.

Sad but a lost cause a long time ago.

In the case of Nai Thon, how exactly does one get a government permit to clear fell National Park with a bulldozer?

[benalibina]

Thai's are tree murderers...pure and simple.

Added to the list.

[moe666]

No trees no water

[YipYipYa123]

I thought Phuket was pretty, but I didn't care to stay there.

It wasn't very a very Thai place, more like a farang beach resort. And I can go to a farang beach resort much closer to home.

Sad yes, but this was an issue that was settled a long time ago for Phuket, a few of the last remained natural parks. I wouldn't go to Phuket to see Layan national park, so I suppose that it was already a lost cause a decade ago.

No doubt they had Government permits, I have seen others go to jail in phetchabun for cutting old growth timber without an official Government permit.

Sad but a lost cause a long time ago.

In the case of Nai Thon, how exactly does one get a government permit to clear fell National Park with a bulldozer?

use your imagination .....more than likely the boss is a greedy thai and hes just

using burmese workers to avoid paying them the min wage .......

[simon43]

Without risking your health, can you video this and post it on YouTube? Change in Phuket will only occur through loss of face or loss of income - no other way.

Simon

[laolover88]

I thought Phuket was pretty, but I didn't care to stay there.

It wasn't very a very Thai place, more like a farang beach resort. And I can go to a farang beach resort much closer to home.

Sad yes, but this was an issue that was settled a long time ago for Phuket, a few of the last remained natural parks. I wouldn't go to Phuket to see Layan national park, so I suppose that it was already a lost cause a decade ago.

No doubt they had Government permits, I have seen others go to jail in phetchabun for cutting old growth timber without an official Government permit.

Sad but a lost cause a long time ago.

In the case of Nai Thon, how exactly does one get a government permit to clear fell National Park with a bulldozer?

Money, bribery, cronyism, usual suspects. I lived in Phuket for several years. When the Puu Yai Baan went to court to

'reclaim' my land deeds as he said they 'had been issued by mistake'!, and won; I decided the corruption had got so

out of hand there was no point in spending many thousands of Baht to contest as Phuket was being systematically

wrecked. I hope they run out of water. Too late for those beautiful trees!

[Rooo]

Deleted a post & another quoting it. Please refer to forum rules before attempting such posts again.

1) Do not express disrespect of the King of Thailand or anyone else in the Thai royal family, whether living or deceased, nor to criticize the monarchy as an institution. Speculation, comments and discussion of either a political or personal nature are not allowed when discussing HM The King or the Royal family. Discussion of the lese majeste law or lese majeste cases is permitted on the forum, providing no comment or speculation is made referencing the royal family. To breach this rule will result in immediate ban. This rule also applies to links to external websites.

[daveAustin]

Not just Phuket, it's all over, the place has truly been raped by its people. A crying shame, I think humans should go starting with the Thais.

[YipYipYa123]

My friend always says thailand could be a great country ........if they were some way to get rid of all those pesky annoying thais

they could call it Wonderful-Land or some more appropriate moniker.....

[sdanielmcev]

Greed is not endemic to Thais or Thailand.

And, since you live there, you are part of the problem. If people, including you, didn't visit or live there, there wouldn't be any need for new developments. "But, when I got here...." is a silly argument. What, is everything supposed to stop?

[YipYipYa123]

Greed is not endemic to Thais or Thailand.

And, since you live there, you are part of the problem. If people, including you, didn't visit or live there, there wouldn't be any need for new developments. "But, when I got here...." is a silly argument. What, is everything supposed to stop?

chopping down thousand years old forrests for a quick profit is not the best long term option and in many countrys would never get permimssion to do such a thing .......but thailand is not one of those countries and if someone like a government official gets a new car out of it ,he will probably rubber stamp almost any proposal ..........people are selfish ,its just a fact of life .....

Theres plenty of derelict buildings and factories and wastegrounds that could be levelled and redevoloped in the centre of most towns and theres always the option of building upwards when space on the ground gets tight .........

[benalibina]

Greed is not endemic to Thais or Thailand.

And, since you live there, you are part of the problem. If people, including you, didn't visit or live there, there wouldn't be any need for new developments. "But, when I got here...." is a silly argument. What, is everything supposed to stop?

Wooowww a post of true intelligence. It is THAIVISA. When are you leaving, as you are part of the problem as well. This according to ur above comment.

[fatdrunkandstupid]

Without risking your health, can you video this and post it on YouTube? Change in Phuket will only occur through loss of face or loss of income - no other way.

Simon

Simon

Your hotel at Nai Yang is not far from the spot I describe. I suggest you take a ride down there and have a look for yourself.

This was a very large forested area, hundreds and hundreds of rai, with huge (100 foot high) pine trees, hundreds of them, around a big, clean (and functioning) estuary. Perhaps the last healthy estuary on Phuket. It was a popular location for local fishermen.

ALL of the trees on the land are being clear felled. Every one. Not even leaving those at the edge of the waterline to act as a buffer or riparian strip. We are talking about the death of a whole forest here. It is an environmental disaster, of monumental proportions, not only for the forest, but for the estuary as well, which of course will now carry mud and silt out to sea to kill the coral around Koh Kata and the headland at Trisara.

They have already started the bulldozing...good Lord...maybe they will also back fill the estuary...

My initial post was not an exaggeration. When I saw that truck with a huge tree in its claw and the remote chainsaw hacking away at full song...I was physically ill.

Phuket is finished...without its environment it is reduced to nothing more than a brothel for the Indians and Arabs and a sun lounge for the Russians and Morrocans.

Thais have already killed the goose that laid the golden eggs...the natural environment here on Phuket. But now they are hell bent on ripping out its spleen and stomping its lifeless skull into the dust.

You are frequent poster here. Take the short ride over to the scene of the environmental disaster I describe and post back with YOUR opinion.

[marko kok prong]

This is awful,i thought Thailand had some sort of ban on timber cutting native species,and of course the whole area will become eroded next wet season,the creek ruined,i suggest you contact the Phuket news or gazette about this,i would imagine there has been some huge corruption involved in this.

[spidermike007]

Greed is not endemic to Thais or Thailand.

And, since you live there, you are part of the problem. If people, including you, didn't visit or live there, there wouldn't be any need for new developments. "But, when I got here...." is a silly argument. What, is everything supposed to stop?

Wow. Comments from another rocket scientist. Thanks for using your tremendous intelligence, and blessing us with your advice. Stay home. Do not leave your house. What about the environmental footprint used by my AC, or my plastic bags from the grocery store. Have you ever considered such a concept? Vacate a country and the country would not have any more problems. Genius if I must say.

[Mudcrab]

Wait until you get to Indonesia with your 25 year visa. That will really open your eyes!

[Mudcrab]

Greed is not endemic to Thais or Thailand.

And, since you live there, you are part of the problem. If people, including you, didn't visit or live there, there wouldn't be any need for new developments. "But, when I got here...." is a silly argument. What, is everything supposed to stop?

Wow. Comments from another rocket scientist. Thanks for using your tremendous intelligence, and blessing us with your advice. Stay home. Do not leave your house. What about the environmental footprint used by my AC, or my plastic bags from the grocery store. Have you ever considered such a concept? Vacate a country and the country would not have any more problems. Genius if I must say.

That is not what he said at all. The point he makes is that without the population growth that is being experienced there may not be the need to do such acts. And he is correct - the more people attracted to a particular place - the more damage will be done. And that includes us whether we like to admit it or not.

If he wanted to get really nasty he could have made the point that people from a native European climate should not try and live in the tropics with their air conditioners etc. consuming energy and causing pollution.

[Ulic]

I would love to see some pictures.

[devaram]

Thai's are tree murderers...pure and simple.

And which country are not tree murderers?

The Earth is under siege in all parts of the world without any exceptions.

Its just that Pucket is the ultimate Whore in Southeast Asia.

[YipYipYa123]

Greed is not endemic to Thais or Thailand.

And, since you live there, you are part of the problem. If people, including you, didn't visit or live there, there wouldn't be any need for new developments. "But, when I got here...." is a silly argument. What, is everything supposed to stop?

Wow. Comments from another rocket scientist. Thanks for using your tremendous intelligence, and blessing us with your advice. Stay home. Do not leave your house. What about the environmental footprint used by my AC, or my plastic bags from the grocery store. Have you ever considered such a concept? Vacate a country and the country would not have any more problems. Genius if I must say.

If he wanted to get really nasty he could have made the point that people from a native European climate should not try and live in the tropics with their air conditioners etc. consuming energy and causing pollution.

wealthy thais use a/c way more than farangs

same with shopping centres that have the ac on full blast and the doors wide open

,cinemas and banks that are so cold the staff wear jackets

if farangs are part of the problem ,theyre a very small part compared to the locals .....

[slipperylobster]

One day, the earth will be covered with trees, once more. We will all be gone...the trees will grow back... Poetic Justice.

[cooked]

Thai's are tree murderers...pure and simple.

And which country are not tree murderers?

The Earth is under siege in all parts of the world without any exceptions.

Its just that Pucket is the ultimate Whore in Southeast Asia.

Try that in Switzerland. You cut down a tree you replace it.

Sent from my GT-S7500 using Tapatalk 2

[Toby Jugg]

I write from south of Pattaya. It is the same here. Every tree is chopped down except a few draped in

faded garlands. But worse maybe ~ every metre of every road is littered with rubbish, be it plastic bags

or builders' rubble. The streets are filthy. I ride a bicycle and the stench of rotting garbage is nauseating.

The only Thailand that so far remains intact is the North and parts of the Northeast. .Civic pride is

evident. But the air pollution, if the press is to be believed is "totally unacceptable". Where shall we go?

[smotherb]

First you complain Thais are backward; then you complain they don't understand environmental concerns---duh.

[slipperylobster]

I suppose we are just as guilty for purchasing homes and properties for the wives.....so that the land must be cleared.

[Showbags]

I suppose we are just as guilty for purchasing homes and properties for the wives.....so that the land must be cleared.

You buy in a national park or forest ?