Phetchaburi River crocodile

Life Along the Phetchaburi River

Ms. Saree is from Phetchaburi, more specifically from Ban Lat District. There’s a river here called the Phetchaburi River. People in this district and surrounding areas have benefited from it for a long time, using it for washing clothes, transportation, and annual boat races during the rainy season. Furthermore, during the dry season, it becomes a place for exercise for the children and grandchildren of Ban Lat.

Every year during the dry season, the water level gets very low. So much so that a wide and long sandbar forms in the middle of the river, allowing people to wade across to play sports such as football or badminton, providing fun for local youth.

Throughout history, the villagers of Ban Lat have cultivated almost every kind of fruit tree in their orchards, including jackfruit, custard apple, rambutan, sapodilla, star fruit, lychee, kaffir lime, coconut, and pomelo, alongside local herbs. This keeps the area moist and lush with greenery nourished by the river. Above all else, the river is a vital natural resource, providing fish and aquatic life for the villagers to earn a living for generations.

Most people in Ban Lat set their fishing lines in the evening and retrieve them in the early morning. They catch various fish, including catfish, snakehead, tilapia, and many others. The Phetchaburi River is much clearer than other areas, with a sandy bottom making the fish clearly visible. During the dry season, the winding course of the river creates strong currents and whirlpools in some sections, teeming with fish and serving as essential breeding grounds.

The Despicable Mr. Dam

Unfortunately, there’s a group of people, lazy and unscrupulous, who use underwater dynamite to kill the fish in the whirlpools, avoiding the hard work of the villagers. In this village lives Mr. Dam, a despicable individual who has never contributed anything useful except for petty theft and secretly planting bombs. It’s well-known that whenever a loud bang is heard, it means Mr. Dam is indiscriminately destroying aquatic life.

Many times, the villagers, including Saree, saw fish and other aquatic life floating downstream after such explosions. The fish were all so small that even a small-mesh net couldn’t catch them, causing the locals great pity. The village headman and sub-district chief had been informed, but to no avail. Mr. Dam and his accomplices always knew the whereabouts of the authorities before they could be caught in the act. So, the villagers could only curse them in their hearts.

The Day of Reckoning

One day during the dry season, the river in the middle dried up, leaving large streams on the sides. Mr. Dam and two accomplices secretly went upstream and planted dynamite in a deep whirlpool. When the explosion sounded early in the morning, Saree immediately realized they were again destroying living beings.

“May they all make a mistake and die like those little fish. Amen,” she cursed.

Later that day, she walked across the bridge, intending to buy groceries. Getting off the bridge, she saw a large group of people gathered, whispering anxiously.

Khao, a young boy, had gone to watch the blast that morning. He told Saree that Mr. Dam, Mr. Joh, and Mr. Kiat were involved. The spot where they blasted the fish is called Khung Tawan—Khung meaning a bend in the river, and Tawan being the name of the household sitting at this bend.

When the group set the explosives, everyone quickly dived down to scoop up whatever fish they could catch. Piles of fish were soon left in front of the Tawan’s home.

The Underwater Terror

After the explosion, everyone was diving underwater to search. Suddenly, Mr. Joh surfaced, screaming loudly in pure agony. An auntie explained that when Mr. Joh surfaced, one of his legs was missing, and he was screaming incoherently.

Then, Mr. Dam surfaced and quickly swam downstream. Swimming downstream in this area is easy for locals because the water flows strongly yet is clean. But while Mr. Dam was hastily diving to escape, he made a terrible mistake. In his panic, his head and face hit a submerged log with immense force.

A monk who helped at the scene described a horrific sight: a piece of wood the thickness of a forearm was embedded in his eye socket, and his face was covered in blood.

“Ayy! Saree!” he cried out, his face a pitiful, agonizing expression.

He was lucky that Mr. Geh had just come back from delivering banana leaves, so they put Mr. Dam in the back of his cart and rushed him to the hospital, unsure if he would survive the trip.

At that moment, Mr. Dam’s wife, Mrs. Kieow, arrived. Saree asked her what the men were desperately trying to escape from.

“It was a crocodile! A real crocodile!” Mrs. Kieow quickly replied.

Aunt Kieow continued, explaining that a few days ago, there were rumors of a crocodile in the northern part of the village. People had hunted it, but nobody expected it to flee down to Khung Tawan.

“That was until Mr. Dam’s gang went to blast it with explosives. These explosives weren’t strong enough to kill the crocodile.”

It had become angry and desperate, resorting to unimaginable violence.

A Grim Fate

When the monk asked about the third man, Mr. Kiat, no one knew his whereabouts. Two days later, Mr. Kiat’s body was found floating, wedged against a bridge pillar. There was a severe laceration on his chest, a fatal wound likely from a crocodile bite.

Fifteen days later, Mr. Joh was discharged from the hospital and returned home, permanently disabled with a severed leg and unable to claim compensation from anyone.

The Aftermath

About a month after the incident, the hospital allowed Mr. Dam to return home. His condition was perhaps even more tragic than Mr. Joh’s. Mr. Dam was now completely blind. One eye had been destroyed when he hit the underwater stump, and the other impaled by wood splinters. Furthermore, he was disoriented and in a stupor.

His face was covered in stitches and scars, and he was almost entirely unable to care for himself. Shortly after he returned from the hospital, his wife ran away to live with her parents in the Cha-am district.

Mr. Dam became a true cripple. The villagers felt sorry for him and often gave him food, but he ultimately became a beggar in the market area, sleeping in the shelter of a bus stop. As for Mr. Joh, his relatives relocated him, and he was never heard from again.

A Cautionary Tale

The story that Ms. Saree shared is a true event that happened about ten years ago. She hopes that anyone considering illicit, destructive acts will reconsider and pursue honest livelihoods. The karmic consequences of what these three men did to the small fish and other creatures in the Phetchaburi River were immeasurable. In the end, they faced a terrifying fate that few should ever have to experience.