The current flooding in many parts of Thailand is not only affecting humans, property and farmland, but has also led to the drowning of many farm animals, such as pigs, as their owners are unable to evacuate them to safety in time.
In Bo Ploy district, of the western province of Kanchanaburi, over 3,600 piglets at a farm in Loom Rung sub-district drowned in a metre of floodwater.
Workers and livestock officials tried to evacuate the remaining 10,000 piglets and 2,800 adult pigs to another farm yesterday (Tuesday), which is not yet flooded, but evacuation is not easy because the beasts have to be taken by boat to be loaded onto a waiting truck for transport to the other pig farm.
The Bo Ploy – Loom Rung Road is currently under 1-2 metres water and is impassable to all but large trucks. Several villages in the district remain inundated today.
In Muang district of the north-eastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima, the swollen Lam Takhong River has flooded the municipality and other low-lying areas, including a crocodile farm in Nong Krathum sub-district.
The area of the pond, in which over 1,000 crocodiles are kept, is not yet flooded, but local officials are concerned that, if the flood water keeps rising, some of the reptiles may escape and pose a threat to people living nearby.
The farm’s owner told Thai PBS that some of the crocodiles are more than two metres long, adding that guards have been deployed to the pond around the clock to monitor the rising flood water and to prepare for the safe evacuation of the reptiles.
She also said that so many crocodiles are currently kept at the farm because there have been fewer customers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
