KANCHANABURI: Authorities have ordered the removal from Khao Laem National Park of the houses of five people charged with killing two wild tigers in jungle near the Myanmar border.
Niphon Chamnongsirisak, director of the Protected Area Regional Office 3 (Ban Pong), on Tuesday ordered Khao Laem National Park chief Kamalas Isa-ard to post orders for the removal of four houses.
The homes, in tambon Pilok of Thong Pha Phum district, are owned by the five suspects in the case - Ratchanon Charoensap, 30 and Supachai Charoensap, 34, who live together, Jorhaeng Phanarak, 38, Kukue Yindee, 37, and 66-year-old tribesman Cho-ae, who has no surname. The are in the park office compound.
The order requires the suspects, their relatives or others living in the houses to leave the national park and to dismantle the houses within 30 days. Failing to do so will result in charges of violating the National Park Act by the illegal occupation of land inside the park. The offence carries a prison term of 4-20 years and/or a fine of 400,000-2,000,000 baht.
Mr Niphon said the suspects and their relatives were until now allowed to live within Khao Lam National Park under a cabinet resolution of June 30, 1998.
But the cabinet resolution states that in the case of any action that causes forest encroachment, expands residential or agricultural areas, destroys or affects forests or the environment, drastic action must be taken against those involved, Mr Niphon said. (continues below)
A park ranger posts the removal order at one of the four houses in tambon Pilok of Thong Pha Phum district, Kanchanaburi, on Tuesday. (Photo: Piyarat Chongcharoen)
The five suspects’ involvement in the hunting and killing of Bengal tigers, which were protected wild animals and on the verge of extinction, and other offences they committed, were evidence they broke the law, Mr Niphon said.
Their relatives were aware of the suspects’ actions and had not interfered or prevented them from doing so, he said.
On Jan 9, forest rangers raided a camp in Huay Pilok forest inside Thong Pha Phum National Park. A group of hunters there fled into the jungle, evading arrest.
The rangers seized the pelts and carcasses of two slain tigers and some of their meat being cooked on a grill. Other items seized included a shotgun, a .22 rifle, 50 rounds of ammunition and two muzzle-loading long guns.
On Jan 13, five suspects surrendered separately to local police. Ten charges were laid against them - violating the forest reserve law, the National Park Act and the Wildlife Conservation and Protection Act, and other related offences.
Park rangers searched the suspects' four houses, in the compound of Khao Laem National Park, on Jan 15 but found no evidence of any wrongdoing.
After the search, Wanchai Soonkham, a forest ranger of the Thong Pha Phum National Park, filed an additional charge against the five suspects, raising the total to 11.
The additional charge was based on the suspects' statement that they had raised cattle in the national park in violation of Section 21 of the National Park Act, an offence liable to up to a year in prison and/or maximum fine of 100,000 baht. The suspects said they hunted the tigers because they had been killing their cattle.