Soldiers have seized more than 100 processed wood planks and illegally-cut logs in a watershed forest in Surat Thani along with the personal documents of a Buddhist monk in one of four pickup trucks left by log poachers.
Acting on a tip that many trees had been illegally felled at Triam Karn watershed forest in tambon Pak Chalui in Tha Chang district, the Surat Thani military district on Sunday sent a team of soldiers to the area.
The team, led by Sgt Maj Somsak Klom-iam, found more than 50 processed wood planks left along the road leading to the watershed forest. At the watershed area, they found three freshly-cut large trees, six logs and about 70 planks. A tent, cooking utensils, equipment used for cutting timber and four pickup trucks were found. However, nobody was in the area.
The soldiers searched the pickup trucks and found a monk’s bag and personal documents of a Buddhist monk from a well-known temple in Muang district of this southern province. The monk’s bag contained 46,500 baht in cash.
The soldiers handed over the seized logs and the other items to Tha Chang police to investigate those involved in the illegal logging.