Officials checking forest encroachment on Samui
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Officials from the Royal Forest Department (RFD) are conducting a survey to determine forest reserve areas on Samui Island after huge illegal encroachment and over-exploitation of the environment by tourist developments in hilly areas.
The department is expected to reclaim over 1,000 rai of forest reserve areas from the land encroachers, RFD director-general Suwit Rattanamanee told a press conference yesterday.
“We hope that by the end of this year we will take the land back from illegal encroachment as much as we can,” he said.
He accepted that most public land on Samui was located in forest reserves and sloped land, which the 1964 Forest Reserve Act did not allow any individuals to occupy. However, he said Land Department officials had allowed some people to occupy sloped areas in forest reserve land.
“I wonder why the Land Department allowed and issued land ownership documents so people can occupy land in forest reserve areas,” he said.
Asked about the RFD’s reaction to the case of Tan Thaugsuban, son of Democrat Party secretary-general Suthep, who has allegedly encroached on forest reserve land at Mount Khao Phaeng, Suwit said his agency was waiting for results of an investigation conducted by the Department of Special Investigation.
“The only thing that we can do is interpret satellite images to study whether these plots are located in forest reserves or not, and then we will send the results of satellite image interpretation to the DSI,” he said.
