Koh Phangan: Foreigners slammed for lopping tree

[StrontiumDog]

Foreigners slammed for lopping tree | Bangkok Post: news

Foreigners slammed for lopping tree

• Published: 18/09/2012 at 03:48 PM
• Online news: Local News

A group of about five foreigners have been caught on camera lopping a large branch off a tree on Phangan island and have been heavily criticised by Thai netizens, many of whom demanded that the authorities arrest them.

Photographs of the foreigners cutting off the tree branch on the popular tourist island in Surat Thani were posted on Sept 15 on Pantip.com, a popular internet forum, by a person who went by the name of vuddiken. The link is www.pantip.com/cafe/blueplanet/topic/E12655715/E12655715.html.


Foreign tourists sunbath on Phangan island of Surat Thani province. (Photo by Supaphong Chaolan)

The topic of the discussion thread is "A group of inherently bad foreigners on Phangngan island in pursuit of their self-interested business surreptitiously chopping down a tree to open a paragliding business."

However, the original poster did not specify when the incident happened.

One netizen said the group of foreigners should not have cut off the tree branch and asked if the tree was in a private or public area or if it was in a national park.

Many posters called on authorities, including National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department director-general Damrong Pidech, to track down these people and take legal action against them.

Thirayuth Plaisuwan, chief of tambon Bantai in Phangan, said he had been informed about the incident and will check whether the area was in a national park.

If the tree is public property, police will definitely find those responsible for the damage and take action against them, Mr Thirayuth said.

[dirtydog]

A Thai chops down a tree and nobody is there, does anybody hear it fall? Does anybody care? Of course not, if this was Thai they need to cut down massive tracts of land to get in the news, Khao Yai and the national park there comes to mind.

[StrontiumDog]

Photos.........

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[Albert Shagnastier]

A Thai chops down a tree and nobody is there, does anybody hear it fall? Does anybody care? Of course not, if this was Thai they need to cut down massive tracts of land to get in the news, Khao Yai and the national park there comes to mind.

Lot of resentment against farang simmering under the surface, reactions like this to, as you say an irrelevance if a Thai did it shows that.

[Orroz]

Mmm... I imagine the only thing that will make this go away is money being passed in small brown envelopes.

[hillbilly]

Unless these farangs owned this section of land which I doubt, they should be jailed, fined and deported. Absolute disrepect!

[somtamslap]

Foreigner with a chainsaw? That is asking for a violent death.

Loggers have turf like drug dealers - and God help anyone that breaches their patch.

[chitown]

Childish Thais making a mountain out of a molehill as usual. Methinks they would string him up if they had the chance....of course no jail time for the Thais that took over the airport a few years ago!

[Troy]

^ Yep! Our village chippy got done 50,000 Baht for using a chain saw a few years ago...He has had to ask the local plod to cut them down using his confiscated chain saw since....

[superman]

Chainsaws are freely available for sale in Thailand. They sell them in the big superstore Do-home up in Isaan

[Mid]

dumb falangs .

[Frankenstein]

The internet is the greatest medium for making people resent other nationalities and skin colours more. This vuddiken guy must have something personal against this operation. Threatening his business interests in some way? He says he cannot report the incident because he is abroad, and when somebody says 'maybe some posters on this thread are blowing things out of proportion, it's just one tree after all' he lashes out at her and accuses her of being the wife of the farang and makes inferences about her small stature and skin colour. I wonder if he has ever cared about a tree in his life, until he saw a 'foreigner' cut one down...

[Frankenstein]

Unless these farangs owned this section of land which I doubt, they should be jailed, fined and deported. Absolute disrepect!

Whatever punishment is usually dealt for the offense should be dealt out, and that ought to be the end of it. If it is a national park, how could they run a paragliding operation there in the first place?

[Albert Shagnastier]

Foreigner with a chainsaw? That is asking for a violent death.

Chainsaws are freely available for sale in Thailand

You can cut what you need - BY HAND ONLY.

That's the unwritten rule I believe.

These guys were chopping so they have a clear jump. If a Thai would have thought of it it would simply have been procedure to remove it. The whiteys do look like a load of bell ends though but calling for them to be imprisoned is perhaps a little harsh. Maybe a 20k fine and a few weeks of community service (gardening maybe)

[Norton]

Hope the lard ass in back isn't planning on a glide.

[Anteak]

Should have just paid a Thai(s) to the job, that way few or no comebacks. They haven't helped themselves by looking like could not care less exploiters even if this is what they in fact are.

[terry57]

That bay looks like Tong Nai Pan where I lived for a while.

Anyway, the local Thais used to bring there long tails into this pristine bay and do there oil change.

Foking wankers would just drop the oil straight into the water and no one give a fuk.

Bunch of tossers.

Cutting that shitty tree is piss all compared to what the locals do raping and pillaging there environment in search of the mighty tourist dollar.

Those falangs where dead wrong in cutting the tree but no biggy is it.

[superman]

These guys were chopping so they have a clear jump.

These guys were using a chain saw, and may well have cut more than we are being lead to believe.

[superman]

Thai runs over a dog, fcuk all said. Farang runs over dog, compensation wanted.

[Looper]

Hope the lard ass in back isn't planning on a glide.

The sunglasses on the baldy should be a jailable crime of fashion.

[superman]

The sunglasses on the baldy should be a jailable crime of fashion.

They look like welders goggles. May be they tried to repair the damage ?

[Bung]

So one dude has a chain saw but all the photos show those Farang using hand tools (and struggling by the look of it!)

Anyway, off with their heads! Or banishment from the Kingdom at the least.

[superman]

So one dude has a chain saw but all the photos show those Farang using hand tools (and struggling by the look of it!)

A couple of photo's don't necessary show the true story. Why struggle using hand tools when they have a chainsaw ?

[dirtydog]

^Chopping down the teak trees with the chainsaw

[Looper]

There was a fella taken to court near the Black Sea for putting a donkey in a paraglider as an advertisement for his business.

Looks like this fella could be up on a similar charge for abusing this horse.