Pipeline seen ruining forest

Pipeline seen ruining forest

BANGKOK (AFP): A crowd of 100 Thai protesters began yesterday
a sit-in protest in some of the country's few remaining areas of
virgin forest threatened by a pipeline planned to bring natural
gas from Myanmar, an environmentalist said.

The protesters, carrying tents and supplies, took up positions
in the jungles of the central province of Kanchanaburi close to
the Myanmar border, in a bid to seal off the forest and stop
construction of the pipeline there.

Boonsong Chansongrasami, a local environmental activist, told
AFP they would stay in the forest until there were talks geared
at changing the route of the pipeline, or until the cabinet
reviewed its decision to let the pipeline take its currently-
planned course.

"We have to protect our environment which will never be the
same again if it is destroyed," he said.