Digestive system failure causes wildlife in Khao Yai National Park to have died a lot. And the cause of digestive system failure is none other than plastic bags that we threw away in the park.

The forest that is considered to be the lung of Thailand covers the area of 11 districts and 4 provinces, namely Nakhon Ratchasima, Nakhon Nayok, Prachin Buri and Saraburi. It is a habitat of various kinds of wild animals such as wild elephants, wild deer, barking deer, bull, tigers, etc. Khao Yai National Park welcomes over 16 million tourists from all over the world per year with many tourism activities.

However, you should be careful enough for doing any extreme activities in Khao Yai National Park. In addition to conservative mind, safety is something that you should pay attention when traveling in the forest.

Animal sightseeing activity is considered as a common activity that is very popular for both Thai and foreign tourists. To join the activity, make an appointment with the park staff at the tourist center before 18.00 hrs of everyday. There are 2 rounds of car rental services, no more than 10 persons each round, the total price per car is 500 baht. When the night time comes, staff will drive a pickup truck with a tour guide, carrying a large spotlight and driving around the park. Porcupines, barking deer and deer are often showed up during the trip. But if your group is very lucky, you may see a herd of elephants. Importantly, you must follow the instructions or warnings of the staff and tour guide strictly. The distance is about 10 kilometers and it takes about half an hour to finish the activity.

The pictures of animals coming out at night eating food in nature are sure lovely and beautiful. But then these pictures are going to be destroyed due to littering problems???

According to the report from the environmental journal of the Environmental Research Institute Chulalongkorn University, in an article entitled ‘Overview of the measures to reduce single-use plastic waste in foreign countries’, each year, Thailand produces and uses 45,000 million plastic bags in 2017, the amount of plastic bags are 517,054 tons, single-use plastic glasses are 241,233 tons, plastic straws are 3,873 tons, foam containers are 29,248 tons. If you go on a trip and you throw away just one plastic waste, this is what will happen.

Because animals cannot distinguish what is food or what is plastic bag, they tend to eat whole plastic bags with food scraps or scent left. Especially animals that are very familiar to humans like barking deer, deer, elephants, birds, porcupines, they will eat everything without realizing that these garbage are life threatening. So what we have to do as a visitor in the forest are not to throw away all kinds of garbage, not to make loud noises and not to left all kinds of food bags outside. (In the case of camping). Garbage must be littered outside of the park or at the place where the park is prepared.

In addition, dressing should be carefully chosen. Starting from raincoat or umbrella, you should choose the right size to carry, the color depends on the preference. We suggest using red or dark blue color because they contrast with the greenery of nature. Clothes should not be too thick. You should pick clothes that are ready to be wet and dry easily. Followed by a sweater, because weather at night there is gusty and cold. Finally, very important one, bring rubber shoes and heel straps along. These shoes prevent slippery and stumbling better than conventional shoes.

For the best time to travel to Khao Yai National Park is during December (winter) until April (summer) of every year.

As stated above, animal sightseeing activity is only a common activity. Khao Yai National Park has many things waiting for tourists to experience such as hiking, forest trekking, biking and rafting.

Regarding the condition of the plastic clogged in the stomach and intestines, it obscures the body from absorbing minerals and water. If those animals have not been rescued, they will suffer a great deal of suffering before the breath is gone. And without animals, there will be no more sightseeing, camping or trekking activities if we have not changed our behavior of littering.

One plastic bag takes 450 years for natural degradation. In the meantime, how many animals have died consuming those plastic bags? … Everything is on us.