Police and national park authorities will order the removal of most buildings at a branch temple of Wat Phra Dhammakaya in Kanchanaburi province because it encroached on the Khuean Srinagarindra National Park.
Police of the Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Division examined Wat Thamnaeramit in tambon Mae Krabung of Si Sawat district on Tuesday with a search warrant that the Kanchanaburi Court issued on Monday. They found that the 97-rai temple was officially allowed by the Department of Religious Affairs to cover only two rai of land.
There were 12 buildings in the compound of the temple but only six monks resided there including its 57-year-old wheelchair-bounded abbot, Phra Khru Wisut Kanchanakit, who used to be a monk at the embattled Wat Phra Dhammakaya in Pathum Thani province.
Pol Maj Gen Suthin Sapphuang, commander of the Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Division, said many buildings at the temple were constructed without permission and he would take legal action.
Thammarat Wongsopha, a regional national park director, said that the temple management would have to dismantle such buildings or national park officials would do it at the cost of the temple.
As for a much bigger branch of Wat Phra Dhammakaya called the World Peace Valley Meditation Centre in Khao Yai area of Nakhon Ratchasima, Suraphan Dissaman, deputy governor of the northeastern province, said on Tuesday that it covered about 500 rai in Pak Chong district and the centre had yet to show land rights documents for 205 rai of the compound.
Local authorities already halted all construction there as some work was taking place on a public stream. Authorities planned to conclude their examination of land use at the centre on Friday, Mr Thammarat said.
National park officials arrive at Wat Thamnaeramit in Si Sawat district, Kanchanaburi, on Tuesday. (Photo by Piyarach Chongcharoen)
