Mapping officers from the Survey Department and officials from the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation will visit Khao Yai National Park on Sunday, to conduct field mapping of land claimed by the land reform office of Nakhon Ratchasima province.
The department sought help from the Survey Department after several demarcation stones were illegally erected in the park, allegedly without prior consultation with park officials.
The Nakhon Ratchasima land reform office is currently in the process of issuing Sor Por Kor 4-01 land certificates to landless farmers and will eventually change the land certificates into title deeds, under the ambitious plan of Agriculture Minister Thammanat Prompao to change Sor Por Kor land certificates into title deeds covering 3.52 million hectares throughout the country.
Atthaphon Charoenchansa, director-general of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, has vowed that he will fight to protect the land in Khao Yai National Park, a World Heritage Site, from encroachers.
Chaiwat Limlikhitaksorn, head of the National Parks Division, recently led officials in removing all the demarcation stones found on park land. He also filed complaints with the Moo See police in Pak Chong district against encroachers wanting to claim the park land under the pretext that it is in a land reform area.
About 478.8 hectares of land around the park, divided into 65 plots, have been claimed by the Nakhon Ratchasima land reform office for distribution, supposedly to landless farmers, along with title deeds, so they can be used as collateral to seek loans.
Meanwhile, a conservationist group, comprising tourism and resort operators and youth networks around Khao Yai, have issued a statement urging Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin to set up a fact-finding committee to investigate the alleged land grab.
