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There are quite a lot of chestnuts and acorns in the mountains these days.

I've said many times that wild animals like squirrels will suffer if I pick them up, but there are still people who bring them in bags.

It is illegal and you may be punished.



Correspondent Kim Sang-min reported.



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A hiker sweeping through the bushes of Mt. Bukhan keeps picking up something in a bag on his arm.



He calls it 'night'.



[Hiker: I came just to pick up food, not to sell, at lunch time.]



It was not difficult to find a hiker who was busy picking up something in other places on the same mountain, but just happened to be caught by the National Park Enforcement Team passing by.



[Can you open the bag?]



Several plastic bags hidden in the backpack.



When I looked inside, it was full of small acorns.



It's been said that I've been driving for over an hour since early morning,



[Hiker: (Are you going to eat this with you?) I'm going to make jelly and eat it at home.

I'm sorry.]



In the end, the acorns that were harvested without permission after receiving a warning notice were confiscated by the crackdown team.



[Lee Seok-ju / Bukhansan National Park Office employee: The confiscated acorns are thrown off the trail and thrown away on the side not visited by visitors.]



It is absolutely illegal to harvest forest products without permission in national parks such as Bukhansan or other mountainous areas.



In particular, acorns and chestnuts are important food sources for wintering wild animals such as squirrels, pheasants and wild boars.



[Park Chanyeol/Researcher, National Forest Science Research Institute: Acorns taken by birds and animals eat part of it, but the bitter part is left over (spit), and (that) becomes a young tree and a forest.

The act of people taking acorns (it breaks the virtuous cycle of nature.)]



If food disappears from the mountains, the wild animals have no choice but to come down to the city center where people live.



Every autumn, there is a crackdown war between the forestry authorities and hikers, but the actual cases are endless.



There is a need for more responsible citizenship to protect natural ecosystems.



(Video editing: Jang Hyun-gi, VJ: Kim Hyeong-jin, CG: Lee Jong-myung)