The team, working with personnel form the Royal Thai Navy, are from the Mangrove Resource Conservation Division of the DMCR Region 10 office and operate as a ‘Special Operations Team’ that has been nicknamed the ‘Great White Sharks’.
The officers, joined by staff from Phuket Mangrove Forest Resources Management Center, inspected a site in Soi Sorngkun, in Moo 1, Chalong, on Wednesday (Feb 22) and found earthworks had been conducted to level the land.
Crops had also been planted nearby, but not in the mangrove forest area. The team will coordinate with the Royal Forest Department to investigate further, the DMCR reported.
The Soi Sorngkun area in Chalong, just south of Phuket Villa 3, has been a hotbed of encroachment in recent years, with illegal development encroaching on the protected mangroves in the area.
Action by officials in protecting the mangroves in the area over the years has seen the entire Makham Khu (‘Twin Tamarind’) community displaced from a protected mangrove forest area in the neighbouring Klong Mudong area in Wichit. The displaced residents are still seeking a place to call home.
The DMCR team on Wednesday also inspected a site further north in Soi Rong Foam {’Foam Factory Street’}, in Moo 1, Ratsada, where they found six houses had been built on an area that has already seen eviction notices and criminal charges served.
The area was seized under criminal case No. 70/2565 filed with the Phuket Provincial Court on Jan 13.
The team is now investigating the construction of the six houses with the intent of presenting evidence to Phuket City Police in order to have charges brought against the offenders, the DMCR noted in its report.
Kurt | 25 February 2023 - 10:00:59