Land in protected area found illegally owned by rich people
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A natural-resource protection agency learned yesterday that some wealthy people in Phatthalung province had cordoned off a plot of land inside the Thale Luang Non-Hunting Area, which has been declared protected under the Ramsar Wetlands Convention.
Chai Sunwanchart, chief of the Thale Noi Non-Hunting Area, led Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) officials on an inspection trip and discovered that more than 10,000 rai of forests had been destroyed and divided into 550 plots. These plots are now allegedly owned by some wealthy people and politicians.
They also found that these so-called owners had put up a sign warning trespassers and built a fence cordoning off 15 rai in the protected area, located in tambon Panang Tung, in Phatthalung’s Khuan Khanun district.
The team is now investigating how the landownership documents for these plots were acquired before reporting the case to DNP director-general Damrong Phidet, Chai said.
“Many local people illegally occupied forestland in a non-hunting protected area,” he said.
Last week, Damrong gave 39 inspection teams the job of looking into the encroachment of land in protected peat swamp areas in Nakhon Si Thammarat and Phatthalung after a raging fire had destroyed forestland in these provinces.
The peat swamp forest covers an area of more than 230,000 rai in Nakhon Si Thammarat, Patthalung and Songkhla. Recent forest fires have destroyed more than 10,000 rai of forestland in this area and to date fires are still burning at three key spots in these provinces. Local forestry authorities have sent 100 firefighters and are using about 10 long-tailed boats to travel into the peat swamp area and douse the blaze.
The department said massive land encroachment was one of the major causes of the forest fires because people set fire to large swathes of forested land before moving into the area.
Chai said his team would spend 30 days investigating land-encroachment issues in Thale Noi and Thale Luang non-hunting areas before passing the investigation results on to Nakhon Si Thammarat Governor Wiroj Jiwarangson, who leads a government-appointed panel to manage the protected peat swamp forest.
Separately, 500 residents of Nakhon Si Thammarat, Phatthalung, Trang and Satun yesterday rallied outside the Khao Banthat Wildlife Sanctuary in Phatthalung to demand that the prime minister help solve land disputes and stop park officials from cutting down their rubber trees or tearing down their buildings.
