Authorities are banning people from foraging in forest reserves nationwide until the end of April in a bid to control smoke-related haze.
Dapong Ratanasuwan, minister of natural resources and environment, said Tuesday that the ban was necessary as smoke from forest fires had reached critical levels in the North and was affecting the economy and tourism.
"It is necessary to ban entry to forest reserves. In fact, the law already forbids it, but it had been relaxed to let people forage. But reckless villagers have used fire to facilitate collection and that causes considerable forest fires," Gen Dapong said.
Under the ban, villagers who still want to enter forest reserves to forage for mushrooms, vegetables and other food items must seek approval from provincial governors first.
The minister said that farmers were also burning fields that encroach on forest reserves and many of them were sugarcane plantations.
He also said that smog was critical in ten northern provinces, including Chiang Mai. Since February, ten people had been arrested for illegal burning and will be prosecuted to set an example, he said.
Krittiya Konthong, deputy director of Chiang Mai airport, said that haze caused the delay of five flights and cancellation of three others on Monday as visibility on its runway dropped to about 800 metres from 11.40am to 5pm.