Villagers fight against demolitions
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Owners of illegallybuit resorts in Thaplan national park and villagers who support them have staged road
Mayor Amnart Phokham is calling on Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to urgently intervene and order a stop to the demolition as well as enforce a Cabinet decision on easing certain conditions, which would force a halt to the touring operations.
The stand-off reached a flashpoint when the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation yesterday issued an urgent directive ordering forestry officials and contract workers to go ahead with the demolition plan, which aims at taking out the first six resorts before this year’s end.
Around 1,000 people camped at an entry point near the six targeted resorts, while another 1,000 blocked a Route 304 section in Nakhon Ratchasima’s Wang Nam Kheow district. Tablan national park covers 1,397,375 rai in four Nakhon Ratchasima districts and Prachin Buri’s Na Di district.
Local politician Chun Sirichaikheereekosol said yesterday that the villagers were not aggressive and did not want anything more than to negotiate and for the law to be relaxed so they can continue with their businesses.
He said the department’s extensive crackdown and planned demolition were damaging to local tourism especially since it was high season. He also spoke about villagers’ help with forest fires, saying: “Be very careful about wild fires, without villagers’ help can forest rangers put the fires out alone?”
The first wave of demolitions will kick off today and run until Friday, and that six resorts must be razed by the year’s end, the directive said. These six are among the 42 resorts that the court has ordered be demolished in a long-standing legal battle.
The villagers also booed and scolded reporters covering the blockades, accusing them of being biased against resort operations and not helping them with their cause. They said that they had helped reforest and restore the Tablan forest reserves to their current fertile condition.
Somboon Singking, a protest leader, insisted that most of the villagers had been farming in the area even before the Tablan area was deemed a national park and said that they supported the resort’s operations because tourism-related work could earn them extra money. He repeated the villagers’ plea asking if the public would want them to return to farming and earning a meagre income for the rest of their lives.
