Today, I heard an even more crazy explanation for the burning problem from some local tour drivers up north.
Allegedly, there are people in every district who are paid to burn stuff. These people are professional “burners.” They actually get money from the local government to burn stuff.
This is because some higher-up people in the Thai government are very concerned about forest fires. So you can call this pre-emptive or controlled burning.
It sounds rather crazy at first, but I have been driving a lot in the countryside and have first-hand witnessed a lot of this seemingly senseless burning of the roadside and the median.
According to my source, the budget for local pre-emptive burning is increasing every year.
* Have other people heard/experienced the same thing?
* How big a part of the overall burning problem is pre-emptive burning?
* And how can we stop it, if it’s a thing?
