According to the Bangkok Post, Army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha ordered all military units to launch a massive crackdown on illegal logging after two major forests were found to have been heavily deforested by gangs of illegal loggers. The order was issued during a meeting of the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) focusing on the "heavy deforestation" in the Salawin forest reserve in Mae Hong Son province and a major watershed forest in Nan.
Since early this month, the authorities recorded 58 illegal logging and trafficking cases in the Salawin forest reserve only, and confiscated 2,230 logs of teak.