PRESERVING THREE NATURAL LEGACIES

       Vichit Phanumphai, a traffic/highway engineer specialising in safety, wrote to ask my opinion concerning the 100-year-old trees in the Sanam Chandra Palace compound in Nakhon Pathom.of proper care," he wrote."According to the gardeners I talked to a few weeks ago,the trees are not allowed to be pruned.
       "One large tree in particular near the dog sta
tue needs some urgent remedial care."
       Sanam Chandra Palace is about one kilometre from Nakhon Pathom's majestic golden pagoda, the Phra Pathom Chedi.King Rama VI had the palace built so he could have a place to stay when he visited the pagoda and watch the combat practice of his elite Wild Tigers Corps, a paramilitary troop.
       The palace comprises five buildings and a shrine for the Hindu god, Ganesh. In front of King Rama VI's Chaleemongkolasana residence, a tiny castle built in combined French and English styles, is a statue of the king's loyal dog, Yalae. Silpakorn University now uses part of the 136-hectare compound as its campus, but the palace grounds and its buildings, which have been turned into museums, are open to the public.
       To have an idea of what Mr Vichit was talking about, my son drove me down to Nakhon Pathom, some 56km south of Bangkok, last Sunday. The Sanam Chandra Palace compound is shaded by many trees,mostly rain trees and mahoganies, several of which were planted when the palace was built 100 years ago. Many showed signs of proper pruning, but as I went deeper into the compound I saw huge, old trees that had been taken over by strangler figs, or had dead branches or trunks that needed urgent surgery work. One tree was still standing but already dead.
       The palace compound has 35 gardeners,and four of them were pruning a mediumsize Lagerstroemia tree. When asked why the Lagerstroemia was being pruned while the old rain trees which needed proper attention seemed to be neglected, they said they were allowed to prune the young trees, but not the old ones.
       "We are waiting for the go-ahead from our boss. He has already asked for permission from Bangkok, but so far hasn't received any reply," one of them answered."We dare not cut down even that dead tree without permission."
       The tree that Mr Vichit was most con-cerned about is a huge rain tree, one of three that flank the Chaleemongkolasana residence. But it is not alone, as two, and possibly all three, need urgent remedial care.
       Two of the trees have been eaten to the core by termites, which have built anthills inside the trees' cavities. A more concerned caretaker would not have allowed the trees to deteriorate this far, and when asked what they thought about it, the gardeners said they had no choice but to let the trees die.
       Not many people in Thailand see the aesthetic if not the historical value of old trees. The palace grounds, and certainly the Chaleemongkolasana residence, would not be the same without the trees, which have provided them shade for more than 100 years.
       The rain trees heralded a different era,when Thailand was still called Siam, and without the trees the old atmosphere of the palace grounds would be gone; it would be akin to an old palace museum showing modern things that do not have a historical meaning.
       In fact, the trees are still holding out and need not die if they are given proper care and maintenance now. First, the termites must be eradicated. There are a number of do-it-yourself termite control products -termiticides, baits, aerosols,insecticides, dusts - but it might be better to seek the services of a termite control professional.
       After the termites have been eradicated,scrub out the termite mound and dead wood from the trees' cavities before applying a fungicide such as copper sulphate on the wound. Fill up the hollow cavity with brick and mortar; it might be necessary to use a piece of chicken wire mesh to strengthen the structure. Fill up the mesh's holes with cement until the tree's cavity is fully covered and then apply paint, if desired, to make the cemented part blend with the colour of the bark.
       The trunks of old trees sometimes have fissures where rainwater and old leaves collect until they rot, killing the surrounding wood and forming a hollow cavity. These should be treated the same way, whether they contain termites or not.
       The work does not stop there. The trees must be monitored regularly to make sure the termites have not come back and invaded the roots instead.
       Actually, termites feed on dead wood and for them to establish clay mounds in the cavities of trees means that the old trees at the palace compound have been neglected for a long time. To be fair, one of the trees beside the Chaleemongkolasana residence showed signs of surgery, but the mortar had been pushed out by the clay mound or anthill.
       It's as if there had been a change of caretaker; one looked after the trees well,but after he left he was replaced by someone who couldn't care less, or who needed someone else's permission before he did anything, to the detriment of the trees.