In a heartless case of enforcing the rules under the Parks and Trees Act, a Bangladeshi national will have to fork out a S$2,000 fine for the heinous, shocking, nefarious act of… plucking leaves off a tree at the Botanic Gardens.
A picture of a fine slip issued to a 28-year-old Bangladeshi man and a subsequent confirmation of the costly National Parks Board (NParks) fine incurred based on an AXS station payment screen went viral across social media over the weekend.
It’s both puzzling and outrageous, really. Why would you need to fork out two grand just for plucking some leaves (unless he was stripping the entire tree bare)? Why was this Bangladeshi national — who is presumably a migrant laborer and earns way below the average salary — not given a stern warning in lieu of a hefty fine?
Is Syzgium myrtifolium (commonly known as the Kelat Paya or Red Lip) such a prized, endangered vegetation that its leaves are valued at several hundred dollars each? To be fair, the tree, native to Singapore, has been presumed “nationally extinct”, according to the NParks website. Then again, the Red Lip is considered a “common roadside tree” by NParks, so it’s probably not that precious after all.
“NParks may consider an appeal”
In the aftermath of the outrage regarding the alleged heartlessness of NParks, the authorities are scrambling to find the Bangladeshi man to clarify the situation. In a statement to Channel NewsAsia, NParks stated that it may “consider an appeal” and will take “mitigating circumstances into consideration” when deciding the actual amount of the fine incurred.
It clarified that the man should not take any action until the composition notice has been issued — said notice will state the actual amount that needs to be paid. The S$2,000 was simply an automatically-generated amount based on the type of offence that was keyed into the AXS machine.
But on the other hand, this S$2,000 penalty is a steal compared to the maximum fine of S$5,000 for the offence of cutting, collecting, or displacing any plant within a public park under the Parks and Trees Act.
