‘You forgot this’: Thai national park will post trash back to litterbugs who drop it
- Khao Yai National Park warns rubbish will be returned to littering visitors
- Tourists will be required to register their address before entering the park
- Anyone littering could face up to five years in prison and a hefty fine if caught
- The popular park is home to elephants, bears, monkeys and other wildlife
Visitors dropping litter in a Thai national park could receive an unwelcome souvenir, as they’re warned any trash will be posted back to their homes.
Khao Yai National Park is a popular tourist destination but administrators and officials in Thailand have grown tired of litter ruining the site’s natural beauty and endangering the animals that live there.
Luckily, Environment Minister Varawut Silpa-archa seems to have come up with a nifty solution.
He shared a photo on social media showing plastic bottles, cans and crisp packets that had been collected and packaged up, ready to be returned to the litterbug who dropped it with a note saying: ‘You forgot these things’.
‘Your trash – we will return it to you’: Thailand’s Environmental Minister Varawut Silpa-archa warned visitors to the popular Khao Yai National Park that if they drop litter, it will be packaged up and posted back to their homes.
Litter collected from Khao Yai National Park is shown packaged up and to be returned to the selfish litterbug who dropped it. The park is reported to have seen a rise in litter despite having on-site facilities available for waste disposal
The minister also reminded people that anyone caught littering could face up to five years in jail and a hefty fine.
Visitors will now be required to register their home address before entering the park.
Anyone found to have littered can expect to have the trash returned to them and will be reported to local police.
‘Your trash – we will return it to you,’ Varawut warned, singling-out tourists who visited the park’s campsites last weekend for not using the bins provided to dispose of their litter, The Independent reported.
He added that the government was taking action in response to an increase in littering in the park, which is home to elephants, monkeys and deer, among other wildlife.
Elephants are just one of the animals that can be seen in the beautiful national park – Thailand’s oldest. One of the dangers of dropping litter in a wildlife park is that it may be eaten by an animal that is searching for food. Ingesting harmful substances like plastic, which makes up a lot of food packaging, could cause an animal to fall ill or even die
Anyone found to have dropped litter in Khao Yai National Park could face up to five years in prison and a hefty fine. They will also be reported to local police, Environment Minister Varawut said, citing legislation explaining the seriousness of dropping litter and damaging the natural environment
Visitors come to Khao Yai National Park to enjoy its natural beauty and to see the wildlife, which includes bears, snakes and deer. The 800-square-mile site is also famous for its waterfalls.
Speaking to reporter’s following Tuesday’s social media post, Varamut said the park had provided visitors with enough facilities to dispose of rubbish responsibly.
‘The authorities had facilitated visitors with everything we could have thought of. They only had to come here and enjoy beautiful nature but we never thought that they would leave us with such waste,’ he is quoted as saying by Pattaya News.
‘We kindly ask every tourist to put garbage in the provided areas because the garbage that you left may kill wild animals that come down around the area looking for food.
‘In this case, we purposefully collected all your rubbish in a box and sent them to your home as a souvenir and a lesson to not litter anywhere ever again.