More crocodiles have escaped into the wild from a farm in Ratchaburi as a team of hunters sets out to capture them.
Two crocodiles, one about two metres long and the other of immature size, were sighted in a large pond behind a pipeline operations centre owned by the SET-listed oil and gas company PTT in tambon Sarm Ruan in Muang district on Wednesday morning. A team of crocodile hunters from Kanchanaburi Provincial Fisheries office and members of a local rescue foundation were called in to catch the crocodiles after PTT employees alerted police.
The incident came after dozens of baby crocodiles escaped from a farm in Pak Tho district and made their way to a nearby canal over the weekend due to inadequate safety equipment and precautions.
Pornchai Tiampanich, owner of Pornchai crocodile farm located one kilometre from the pond, admitted that the two crocodiles escaped from his farm but he could not tell how it happened. He said the larger reptile had slipped away from his farm a long time ago before it became a full-grown crocodile. His farm has 10 pits which keep crocodiles of different sizes.
Mr Pornchai said he would pay for the cost of the search and capture of the crocodiles, but said he was prepared to let the hunters decide whether to catch the two-metre long crocodile dead or alive.
A team member said the hunters located the larger crocodile in a three-metre deep pond covering about one rai at about 3.30pm, but it managed to evade their net.
On Tuesday, Ratchaburi deputy governor Ronnnapop Luengpairoj ordered all crocodile farm owners to improve their crocodile pits to ensure they meet safety standards before teams of officials inspect their facilities on Oct 12.
Authorities will revoke the operating licences of farms where the crocodile enclosures are found to be not up to standard.