Conservation officials in Thailand have found a dead deer with 7 kilograms (15 pounds) of plastic garbage in its stomach. It is the most recent discovery that highlight how waste is affecting the country's wildlife and everything else under it.
According to Thailand's Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, the deer was found in Khun Sathan National Park in Nan province in northern Thailand on Monday.
The 10-year-old deer did not have any external wounds or cuts, and had died two days before it was discovered, the parks department said. The department said the animal died from gastrointestinal obstruction combined with old age.
Kriangsak Thanompun, director of the protected region in the Khun Sathan National Park, said in a news report that the plastic bags were "among the causes of [the deer's] death."
The DNP official Facebook and Twitter pages posted photos of the autopsy showing garbage bags, instant coffee packages, condiment packages, rubber gloves, towels, and even a pair of men's underwear in the deer's stomach.
#สุดสลด กวางป่าขุนสถาน กินขยะพลาสติกตาย ปิดผ่าอวัยวะภายในพบขยะพลาสติก จำนวน 7 kg ประกอบด้วยซองกาแฟ ซองเครื่องปรุงบะหมี่กึ่งสำเร็จรูป ถุงพลาสติกจำนวนมาก ถุงดำ ถุงมือยาง ผ้าเช็ดมือ กางเกงในผู้ชาย เชือกฟาง #ขยะพลาสติก #กวางป่า #กรมอุทยานแห่งชาติ #dnpreport pic.twitter.com/p8PHvdEOSA — กรมอุทยานแห่งชาติ สัตว์ป่า และพันธุ์พืช (@DnpReport) November 25, 2019
Thanompun also told BBC News Thai that the deer might have eaten the plastics for a long time before it died. "Authorities [believe] the plastics had blocked up its alimentary canal [but a] additional investigation [would be] launched," he added.
"[The results show that] we have to take seriously and reduce - single-use plastic," he said, calling for "eco-friendly products" to be used instead.
An orphaned celebrity baby dugong died in Thailand earlier this year due to the plastic waste lining its stomach. A short-fin male pilot whale died in June last year after ingesting more than 17 pounds of plastic bags and packaging.
'Be responsible, take your trash with you' - says netizens
Many netizens on social media criticized the park-goers who had littered
"When you [visit] a national park, take your [trash with you]. [Be responsible]," one netizen said on Facebook.
Another netizen commented that it would be challenging to get people to pick up after themselves.
"This is something that has to be [developed] and [executed] since a young age. By the time [these people] are adults, it is troublesome [to change the habit]," the netizen said.
A "three-phase plan" would be put in place in the park, according to Kriangsak. The plan aims to get local people to collect plastics and other rubbish in the national park area.
The plan also included the possibility of setting up a committee that will be tasked to deal with waste management and education of the public on litter prevention.
Billions of plastic bags are collected yearly, says environmentalists
Environmental group Greenpeace said that some 75 billion pieces of plastic bags are thrown away in Thailand every year.
Thailand's environment minister in September said that major retailers in Thailand would stop producing single-use plastic bags starting January 2020.
According to a 2015 report by Ocean Conservancy and the McKinsey Center for Business and Environment, more than 50 percent of the plastic disposals into the world oceans come from Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, and China.
The report claimed that more than 65 percent decline in plastic waste leakage in those five Asian countries would lead to a 45 percent global reduction. A study by the UK government, published in 2018, showed that the amount of plastic cluttering the Earth's oceans would triple within a decade.
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