Thread: Manhunt for a monk suspected of girdling and poisoning over 100 trees in temple

The forest management office in the southern province of Krabi are gathering evidence to take legal action against a monk who allegedly girdled more than 100 trees and then poisoned them with chemicals in order to kill them.


The Krabi forest management office director Mr Thanat Saemee said Sunday that officials had checked trees on the compound of Wat Tham Sua monastery and adjacent area and found several hundreds of trees, aged between 10-100 years old, being girdled and sprayed with herbicide with many of them dying and stripped of leaves.


At the parking lot of the monastery, about 100 Tabaek, Inthanin, Krathinnarong and Chamchuree trees were found to have been girdled and sprayed with herbicide.


A monk who was suspected to be the tree killer was identified as Phra Sap Chittamaro has already disappeared from the temple.


It was reported that internal conflict in the temple was the cause of the “killing” of the trees.
Mr Thanat said all efforts would be made to hunt down the runaway monk so as the incident would not set an example for others to follow suit.


Manhunt for a monk suspected of girdling and poisoning over 100 trees in temple |

^Quite exciting crimes reported from Krabi, Pattaya etc. Now, when there has been nothing new from the cave...

Originally Posted by misskit

the tree killer was identified as Phra Sap

Sap, leaf it out he was rooted out from his arbour

CSI TD branch can stand down

I just learnt a new word. Many thanks.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girdling

^ Me, too. I’d always heard it called ringing.

I'd only ever heard it called ring-barking

Originally Posted by nidhogg

I just learnt a new word. Many thanks.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girdling

No, it's correct. One of my first book in Thailand was about young Englishman who after the WW1 applied for a logging job in North of Thailand. He describes how they girdled the huge teaks one year to have it dried up - similarly like the monk in Krabi (but no pesticids). Only after 1 - 2 years they fell it down completely and moved it to the river.

Freshly felled teak would not float, is heavier than water (>1t/m3 - so easy to calculate, how it is in pounds/qft?).

(the book: Reginald Campbell, Teak-Wallah: The Adventures of a Young Englishman in Thailand in the 1920s)

Obviously a herbicidal maniac.

Wat Tham Suea is among the few places that still have great venerable trees...I was impressed they haven't been cut and sold.

Those impressive trees, and the monkeys and the "trail" to the top made me come back twice which happens rarely.

On the issue of temple management, I think there is matter to discuss as it looks very affluent...new buildings, big parking lots, shops. It looks like a fine and profitable business operation (but entry was still free)

Originally Posted by TizMe

I'd only ever heard it called ring-barking

Same here, girdling is a type of fishing using your hands.

^To get a teak to die - as it had been practised with ancient logging in Thailand - it needs more than ring-barking, hence, girdling...

Originally Posted by Farang Ky Ay

Wat Tham Suea is among the few places that still have great venerable trees...I was impressed they haven't been cut and sold.

Those impressive trees, and the monkeys and the "trail" to the top made me come back twice which happens rarely.

On the issue of temple management, I think there is matter to discuss as it looks very affluent...new buildings, big parking lots, shops. It looks like a fine and profitable business operation (but entry was still free)

Well....it seems that most Wat communities have this political flavour, in one regards or another.
Naturally, every situation will differ from the next.

Remembering when the broader Wat communities, and their familiar extensions, were of a benign nature.
Today, the drive is of a profitable and mean-spirited manner.


Aside from all trivial semantics with this thread, I believe this joker [when caught] should be incarcerated for a very long time.
Crimes against nature cannot be compromised.