Phetchabun - Authorities on Friday began demolishing 111 resorts illegally built on Phu Thap Boek Mountain in Phetchabun's Lom Kao district.
The largest resort, "Rong Tieum" was the first to be demolished by a combined force of about 500 police, soldiers and forest officials.
The authorities began knocking down the illegal resort despite protests by the resort's owner who did not reveal his name.
He said the demolition was illegitimate and unfair and complained that the authorities only singled out his resort for demolition on Friday.
Nineteen illegal resorts will be among the first batch to be knocked down, said Chonlatid Suraswadi, director-general of the Royal Forestry Department, who led the demolition operation.
A source said that it might take around three months to clear all the illegal buildings and that the initial cost of knocking down the first 19 resorts would be around 6 million baht.
Mr Chonlatid said his department is ready to press criminal charges relating to forest encroachment against all the operators of the illegal resorts.
The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) on July 5 authorised authorities to demolish any buildings causing adverse impacts on ecological systems or posing a landslide danger to help protect forest land in two tambons in the Phu Thap Boek forest zone.
Shortly after the NCPO issued the order, the Phetchabun provincial office set up a special panel to deal with the issue. The panel comprised representatives from various state agencies concerned.
The panel later looked into forest encroachment claims and found local authorities had previously ordered and not followed up on the demolition of the 19 resorts on Phu Thap Boek earmarked yesterday as the first batch to be knocked down.
Governor Bundit Theveethivarak said the province is ready to exercise power to remove any building on Phu Thap Boek under the NCPO's order.
"Unregulated growth of tourism here will finally end and its original charm as a place where the Hmong can preserve their traditional way of life and agriculture can be restored," Mr Bundit said.
Proper land and tourism management will help create sustainable development in the mountainous area," he added.
Puttipat Lertchaowasit, head of the Department of Social Development and Welfare under the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, said there should be no resorts there as they flout land management rules set out under a cabinet resolution made in February 2000.
Mr Puttipat said the ministry is responsible for 47,021 rai and had already allocated the land to Hmong families to live on and farm under the condition that they do not sell the land and that the land should not be developed for commercial purposes.
He said the ministry has already completed a land management plan, in which a zone of land has been set aside for the purpose of living on, farming, or serving as forest conservation or relaxation zones.
The master plan involves 33.25% for a farming zone, 62.30% for a forest area, 1.55% for a relaxation zone, 22.18% for a community zone and 1.65% for a residential zone.
The plan will be forwarded to the National Committee on Land Policy and then the cabinet.