Humans, get out of the forest

My question to you humans is this: What have human rights got to do with forest preservation? Why isn’t there an “NERC” for elephants’ rights? Or a rights organisation for the gaurs, pangolins and tigers (the only ones I’ve seen recently were dead in the back of your pickup trucks), not to mention rare spiders and sandalwood trees?

You humans have exercised your so-called “rights” over most of this land where my grandparents once roamed. You have bundled us like prisoners into pitifully small “national parks”, and now tell us that even there we have to accede to “human rights”, and that you are free to chop down our trees and grow your food where once we could find ours. 

Does that not sound unfair? How would humans like it if I and my brother elephants turned up at one of your housing estates, demolished some homes, and spread out tables laden with pizza, hamburgers and green curry, and then when you were enticed by the delicious smells we burst forth and stomped you to death? Not very nice, right? Well that’s what you are doing to us!

Another point: you humans have left us with less than 6 million hectares of parks and sanctuaries, and yet you say that 1 to 2 million of you are “forest dwellers” and have the right to plunder our forests, not for subsistence but for commercial gain! 

Come on, guys – do the maths! The forests don’t have a chance, do they? Have you seen how they’re being converted to agriculture everywhere? Have you noticed that there only 1,000 of us elephants left in the wild? Has anyone seen a tiger recently? How are we supposed to survive?

Human rights come second to animal rights in the forest. They have to. In Kenya, the national parks officials shoot poachers. Now please park your NHRC outside the park boundary and let that nice Mr Chaiwat do his job.

Plai Pike

Phang Nga