Mass fish found dead, gaur dead toll rises to 22

BANGKOK, January 18 (TNA) - Fishery and marine conservation officials are investigating mass fish deaths in Kabin Buri District of Prachin Buri Province in the Thai East. Hundreds of freshwater fish of various species were found dead on Saturday in Phra Pong Canal, running between Prachin Buri and Sa Kaeo Provinces in the eastern Thai region. The authorities collected water samples to determine the exact cause of the deaths. They suspect the deaths might be caused by chemical released from a tapioca flour factory, located upstream. The officials, thus, warned local villagers not to consume the dead fish until the probe result comes out. Meanwhile, an additional guar carcass was found at Kui Buri National Park in Prachuap Khiri Khan Province in the Upper Thai South, the latest in a spate of death which have claimed the lives of 22 guars so far. The national park chief Suriyon Photibhandit told reporters that the national park’s petrol units found the guar skeleton and all its organs in a grassland, about one kilometer away from the royal-initiated rubber plantation project. The authorities assumed that the guar has been dead for 1-2 month, meaning that the guar could have died in the same period as the other 21 guars, which were earlier found dead at the national park. The cause of their deaths remains unknown. Suriyon said he has ordered national park’s authorities to continue their search for more guar carcass for another two months and national park’s veterinarians to closely monitor two wounded guars, which are currently living with 10 others in the grassland. The officials also plan to dart the sick guars in the national park in order to take their blood sample to be tested to find the cause of the animals’ death. (TNA)