The expansion of Thanarat Road leading from Pak Chong to the entrance of Khao Yai National Park has been shelved, according to news reports. The story of how the road expansion project was tearing out dozens (hundreds?) of large trees 50 years old and older made the news ever day this week. The outcry from locals and visitors became quite pronounced. A stage was set up with bands playing and people invited to sign a petition against the project. Southeast Asia Greenpeace sent a letter to the government condemning the project. And finally Prime Minister Abhisit called a halt to the project.
Today we visited the area and saw that all the heavy equipment has now been withdrawn to a camp area. The biggest question now is what kind of remediation is going to be done for the area. Many are calling for the money to be spent to replant large trees along the road so that in a few years some of the atmosphere of the area can be restored. There are also calls to investigate where those old trees went because some of them are worth a lot of money on the black market.