Did you find this post really amazing (in a positive way)?
If yes, then UPVOTE this comment otherwise DOWNVOTE it.
This community feedback will help us determine whether this post is suited for r/BeAmazed or not.
Teach a man to fish and you will feed him for the rest of his life. Teach a man to fish for logs and he will make a fire to cook the fish that you taught him how to catch, for the rest of his life. Probably
I just imagine their raft (made of logs) fell apart and are now spearing more to make another raft. Their raft will break and feed adventurers downstream.
I’d guess this is India or somewhere else in SE Asia with a high population density in the larger cities. Wood is still used for cooking and demand is greater than supply.
You're correct - it is India.
You're partly correct - wood is used for cooking though everyone has LPG now. Wood is used for speciality cooking - kinda like wood fired pizza is a thing in Italy
You may be incorrect - this seems to be for pyres. Most Hindus burn their dead, though significant numbers opt for electric cremation now.
Koshi barrage is the name of the place, and they do it to sell the wood.
Its not that much more work than say going to a plot of land cutting wood with a chainsaw and selling it later. But in this case you dont have to own or have access to land.
It's a river, logs naturally just fall into it from the thousands of miles of roverbanks it has. Grew up next to the Mississippi rover, and we would see logs and trees and things just floating by constantly.
Dude, forest exist and rivers flow through them, trees fall in the woods, floods happen, and they get picked up and carried to the river, and then they float down the river and out into the ocean. Are they seriously not teaching this shit in schools these days?
I feel like the fact that trees fall down was probably mentioned in school. The question "if a tree falls and no one hears it did it make a sound" definitely was
On top of that schools are meant to teach common sense and critical thinking. It's not hard to connect the dots here. Trees fall. Sometimes into rivers. Then they get carried by the river
If you can't figure that out then maybe schools failed you or you've just never been around trees I guess
Whatever it is must be a decent little operation. There’s a lot of skill and safety involved aside from just some full body manual labor. I imagine they’re getting a bit of dough.
I’m guessing as fuel for their cook stove at home? Possibly make carvings to sell to survive? Whatever reason the lengths they’re willing to go is mind blowing and must be worth it I guess
I grew up in Ottawa, and there are people who find and collect timbers that sunk during the building of the Canal. It was completed in 1832 and the logs and heen timbers at the bottom are, in some cases, massive.,.. they're worth a LOT, as you said... I found out about the practice in the 80's, I have no idea if they're still doing it, but the Canal is 200km long so there could be a lot of timbers in there...
I know my folks used to go out and purchase drift wood as yard decorations. This could be some kind of cottage industry if they aren't using them for fire. If you dry out drift wood it can look really cool, but if they're using it for fire I have to say that the crap burns really quickly.
Possibly an area, maybe in India, where wood is scarce. The area around the partnof the Ganges where the main funeral pyres take place wood is very expensive
My guess is, if they want it, someone else also does. So the more upriver you are you get first dibs. Just a guess, that or it’s way harder throwing spears from river banks.
It's honestly balanced when you consider a misstep is likely immediately lethal and it's really only viable in Third World maps on hard mode or higher.
Pretty sure it is in most places, you can't just cut down other people's trees. Driftwood is great because no one owns it, also has qualities other wood won't have.
I'm so sorry to have to contradict you (as is my prerogative on this website), but Reddit has been like this for at least fifteen years - likely since its conception.
Yes, they aren't working for the company, its morelike the company buy the driftwood from them by a super cheap price, but because it is located in a poor region in southeast asia (don't remember the country), a lot of people gether around the river to catch driftwood and sell them. Basically a multinational company exploiting locals
Yeah, but the company would have to built the system, they don't work for the company, they just sell them the driftwood for a really low price. Basically the company is exploiting them
The fact that this has a third of the upvotes to the statement its responding to. And its responding kindly to the most moronic and worthless statement Ive seen on reddit today....
"Its gone take time to dry that driftwood in order to burn"
maybe i’m reading it wrong, but the “a bit” comes off as sarcastic. like it will take so long (a bit) for the wood to dry that by the time they can use or sell it as firewood, it wouldn’t matter.
Burning driftwood is bad because there are tons of salts, minerals and heavy metals that turn into carcinogenic smog… you might be burning wood with high amounts of mercury or whatever else oil companies spilled into the ocean.
All wood is carcinogenic to some extent but it’s a tiny fraction, but ocean driftwood is on a whole other level of toxic, especially depending where you live.
I live on the Gulf of Mexico so I know any driftwood is basically toxic sludge croutons floating in microplastic and oil soup. It even smells awful if you burn it.
Like I said, it depends heavily on where you live. If you live somewhere where the ocean is clean and somewhat pure it’s less of a risk, but lots of people live where the water isn’t great… and it gets worse by the day.
It’s best to just be safe and not give people the crack in the door because they’ll assume they’re the special ones that will be fine.
Driftwood from the ocean has always been toxic to burn. When driftwood dries out, the salt water leaves behind crystals of salt and whatever else was dissolved in the water. When burned it creates a gas called sodium chloride. Sea water also naturally contains things like sulfur and silicates. Sodium chloride react with those to create hydrogen chloride or chlorine gas. As the gas cools it binds with carbon or other organics in the smoke to make dioxins.
Dioxins are some of the most highly toxic chemicals known to science. You'd think you'd have to burn a lot of driftwood to be effected, but some dioxins cause cancer in ridiculously small amounts, like picograms of it (10-12g).
Locals and workers on rivers near barrage structures (such as the Koshi Barrage along the India-Nepal border) use long spear-like poles and iron-tipped harpoons to catch and pull massive floating hardwood logs out of dangerous currents. This wood is salvaged for fuel, building, or sale, and clears dangerous blockages.
It’s like one of those stupidly addicting app games. LOG JAM. Help save the town down river by spearing and collecting logs! Then sell them to the mill to make wood to build a dam, then build hydroelectric dam by slaying rabid beavers while riding on the back of a soaring eagle, for a minute.
I’ve spent a quarter or so of my life in developing nations. Those people are resourceful. Everything we take for granted is worked for by them. And on top of it, every single one of them have at least 6 side hustles, which are usually scams on tourists/foreigners! But you can’t blame them- most westerners have zero idea how the majority of the world lives.
•
u/BeAmazed-ModBot Subreddit Bot Aug 12 '26
Did you find this post really amazing (in a positive way)?
If yes, then UPVOTE this comment otherwise DOWNVOTE it.
This community feedback will help us determine whether this post is suited for r/BeAmazed or not.