About 50 people including villagers joined the meeting at Moo 7 Baan Yamu in Pa Khlok, with Pa Khlok Mayor Panya Sampaorat, Director of the Khao Phra Thaeo Non-Hunting Area Office Pongchart Chouehorm, Director of the Khao Phra Thaeo Non-Hunting Area Office Conservation Centre Piyawat Sukon and others.
“We are currently requesting permission from the Department of National Parks to move the monkeys,” Mr Piyawat told The Phuket News yesterday (Dec 18).
“For more information, please ask Mr Pongchart.”
Mr Pongchart refused to provide additional further information over the phone, despite details of the meeting being posted to his public Facebook page last Thursday.
“The meeting was held to resolve the problem of monkeys who are annoying locals by ransacking and destroying property in Phuket,” he wrote on the post.
“The responsible agency will request permission from the Department of National Parks to catch the monkeys, sterilize them and move them to a suitable place in the action plan to alleviate the problem of monkeys in Phuket,” the post added.
In September, Mr Pongchart said, “We studied ways to manage the monkey problem in Phuket at Khao Rang (Rang Hill in Phuket Town) and Koh Siray.”
“We have now surveyed and collected information on five islands around Phuket,” Governor Norraphat also told at the meeting on Sept 18, attended by Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand founder Edwin Wiek.
“Some of the monkeys will be released to the secure ecosystems of these selected islands, to reduce the number of monkeys in areas highly populated with locals and tourists here in Phuket.” he added.(See story here.)