OPINION

Prayut, tell all

Re: "CCTV 'contradicts' Taiwan actress" extortion claims," (BP, Jan 28).

The Royal Thai Police furiously deny the accusation they extorted 27,000 baht from a Taiwanese actress, saying that CCTV nearby and the ride-hailing driver she took don't support her claims. But CCTV can be doctored and no driver would want to gratuitously get in our cops' bad graces.

For something more substantial that hopefully will clear our police, PM Prayut should make Khun Vicha Mahakun's panel report public, for Prayut himself commissioned Khun Vicha to find out why our cops had been unable to even locate Red Bull heir Vorayuth "Boss" Yoovidhya, on the run for over a decade for a hit-and-run killing.

Khun Vicha submitted the report over two years ago, yet PM Prayut's kept it buried out of the public eye ever since. As the police often tell suspects: "If you're innocent, tell all."

So, Prayut, stop hiding the evidence that will clear or incriminate our law enforcers -- and tell all.

Re: "Hungry wild elephants 'knock' on villagers' doors," (BP, Dec 17) and "Giant hopes for Elephant Day," (BP, March 14).

The news article in the paper started by saying the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) has drawn up a 10-year action plan to mitigate conflicts between humans and elephants, and the government on May 26, 1998, designated March 23 as National Elephant Day.

It is not known how much progress has been achieved in the action plan but news reports suggest human-elephant conflicts have escalated.

Just on Friday, local officials had to close a road in Chachoengsao province to prevent over 80 wild elephants from feeding on cash crops.

About 40 elephants from the herd managed to cross into Kabin Buri district of the neighbouring Prachin Buri province, where they began feeding on sugarcane plantations.

A volunteer who took part in the operation said a large area of sugarcane plantations was destroyed by the wild elephants.

He said events like this had occurred frequently in recent months.

My opinion is the problem is a result of elephant-overpopulation, which, in turn, is the result of natural- and human-caused disturbance of the natural balance of the forest ecosystem.

The ecosystem-imbalance caused by humans means there are not enough carnivores to hunt the elephants, so the elephant population has increased out of proportion.

There are also human-elephant conflicts in human's communities and agricultural areas expansion, leading to the separation of the forest areas, resulting in the elephants coming out to find food in the agricultural areas and destroying crops.

The issue of human expansion leading to the separation of the forest areas, including the issues of many forest conservation areas lacking food and water sources and many mountainous areas being too steep, leads to the size of the elephant habitats becoming smaller, resulting in carnivore depopulation and thus the problem of elephant overpopulation.

The best solution is to prevent the elephant habitats not being destroyed by utilising scientific methods of improving the deteriorated forest areas to become proper habitats and by linking of forest areas.