People in Cua area are worried about rubber theft.

Rubber trees are considered the main source of income for people in the Cua area of Cam Lo commune. However, recently, many households have been worried and insecure because this source of income has been seriously affected, leading to many other consequences due to the theft of rubber latex after each tapping. Because "rubber bandits" only operate at night and constantly change locations, detecting and reporting to the authorities is difficult.

Having her rubber latex stolen after tapping made Mrs. Tran Thi Gai uneasy and worried - Photo: L.Tr

Every year at the end of April, people in Quang Tri province in general and Cam Lo commune in particular are busy entering the rubber latex tapping season. From 1-2 am every day, throughout the forests and rubber plantations in Cam Lo commune, there are many people carrying tools to tap (scrape) latex.

Mrs. Tran Thi Gai’s family in Nghia Phong village, Cam Lo commune has about 0.5 hectares of rubber trees, of which 200 are in the exploitation period. Every morning at about 2:30 a.m., when everyone is fast asleep, she prepares her tools to tap the latex.

According to Ms. Gai, on average, each time she taps, she spends more than 2 hours and collects about 10kg of latex, depending on the weather. With the current market price ranging from 19,000-20,000 VND/kg of dry latex, she has to spend 2 days tapping to harvest once. According to calculations, each day her family also earns 180,000-200,000 VND to cover living expenses for the whole family and her stroke-stricken husband.

But a few days ago, Ms. Gai was confused when she discovered that all the dry latex from each tree that she had tapped for 2 days had been stolen, leaving only about 3kg in the entire garden. “The person who had been following me had just finished tapping and returned home when he started stealing liquid latex. There are also many households in this area that have had their latex stolen. This situation has only happened recently and the difficulty is that they only steal a little from each house, then find another location, so there is no basis to monitor and report to the authorities,” Ms. Gai said.

Not only Ms. Gai's family, in the past month, in the two old communes of Cam Chinh and Cam Nghia (now Cam Lo commune), there has been a continuous loss of rubber latex after tapping. This has made people very upset and insecure.

According to Mr. Nguyen Cong Cuong in Doan Ket village, Cam Lo commune, the theft of rubber latex occurs in many villages with a frequency of only 1-2 times per household. Because we are afraid of collision, when we discover it, we keep quiet to monitor, but it is very difficult because latex is tapped at night. Like my family, there are currently more than 500 rubber trees in 2 different areas and each tapping session yields about 50-60kg of latex.

A few days ago, more than half of the latex was stolen while it was still in a bowl hanging on the tree. If this situation continues, not only will we lose our source of income, but it will also cause other effects such as damage to the tapping tools in the rubber garden and loss of security and order.

The two communes of Cam Chinh and Cam Nghia (now Cam Lo commune), also known as Cua area, currently have nearly 1,650 hectares of rubber trees. Of these, nearly 1,400 hectares are in the exploitation period. This is the main crop, creating a stable source of income for local people.

Head of Doan Ket village, Cam Lo commune, Hoang Ngoc Man, said that because most of the people's rubber gardens are far from residential areas, they often tap for 2 days and then wait for the latex to dry before harvesting. This is an opportunity for criminals to take advantage of stealing latex and they only take it once and then change locations, so monitoring and reporting to authorities is difficult because there is no basis.

However, according to information from local people, this situation is still happening in many villages in the two old communes of Cam Chinh and Cam Nghia. “Latex thieves operate at dawn when there are no people. For each garden, they usually steal about half of the latex output. However, that is also the effort of people who stay up late to tap, in the morning there is nothing left, losing money, so I am very confused,” Mr. Man shared.

Traders buy rubber latex from people in Cua area - Photo: L.Tr

Speaking to reporters, Chairman of Cam Lo Commune People's Committee Nguyen Van An said that he had received information from people about the theft of rubber latex after each tapping session in the Cua area. At this time, the price of latex is 5,000 - 6,000 VND/kg higher than last year, so many thieves take advantage of the night, when people finish tapping and return home, to steal latex.

“This is an alarming situation, affecting the security and order situation in the area, so the locality has directed the police force to urgently coordinate with other localities to verify and clarify. At the same time, to limit the rampant situation of “rubber bandits”, we recommend that people regularly watch over and protect rubber gardens, and collect rubber latex immediately after tapping. For households that have been robbed, it is necessary to inform and report to the authorities so that the authorities have a basis to organize monitoring of hot spots in order to quickly find the culprits to deter and handle them according to regulations,” Mr. An added.

Le Truong

Source: https://baoquangtri.vn/nguoi-dan-vung-cua-bat-an-vi-nan-trom-mu-cao-su-195915.htm