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Published on August 14, 2007

He is a man for all seasons, whose quintessential antics have never stopped mesmerising the public.

Now that he is charged with helping a private company export the 100 tigers, the public are reminded again of his past exploits.

People remember that when he was director-general of the Fisheries Department, he made himself the leader of a hunting team. Instead of wielding fishing rods like the department's name might suggest, the team held rifles. And their quarry weren't fish, but crocodiles which had sneaked out of farms during a flood.

When he was the director-general of the Forestry Department, he concocted a policy to sponsor a change of uniform for all his officers. The uniforms looked identical to those of soldiers and instantly made headlines. The new uniforms were supposed to boost the officers' morale. Their old uniforms - plain green - blended too well with the forest and did not threaten the felons who encroached on forests.

When he served as a vice minister during the Thaksin era, Plodprasop was given an important task: Chiang Mai's Night Safari.

He was not too shy to don a spectacular outfit and ride on an elephant's back for the zoo's opening ceremony. To draw public attention to Thailand's first night zoo, he unveiled a list of exotic dishes, courtesy of wild animals, such as snake blood and giraffe meat. He actually received overwhelming public interest. Too bad that most of this was negative and forced him to change the menu to more common items like ostrich and crocodile steaks.

When grey wolves sneaked out of the Night Safari, he was also among the team tasked to hunt them down. He even put himself in the cages designed to hold the wolves captive.

Now, in his free time, Plodprasop is happy running his own kindergarten called Suraswadi. He plans to open a second branch and a nursery school.

And as Plodprasop has always been consistent, he is not afraid that his exotic background will drive away potential clients. He even announced that he would groom their children to be like him.

"If they don't like me, they shouldn't bring their children here," he said.

Parents, think about your decision before you step into his hunting zone!

achara_d@nationgroup.com