The government’s Forest Operation Protecting Centre over the weekend conducted inspections and made arrests at three locations near Khao Yai. Despite facing encroachment charges, owners of the three plots were found to be still occupying their properties and even offering them for sale or demarcating the land to declare ownership. The investigation team seized backhoes working on the site and charged the drivers for illegal deforestation. Meanwhile an investigation at a nearby teak plantation seized by authorities in 2016 found that the encroachers had refused to leave and were asking more than Bt1 billion for the land. Despite not being allotted to local residents, the plot somehow found its way into the hands of the encroachers, who resisted eviction, demarcated the land and put it up for sale.

Source: The Nation Bangkok May 29, 2018 18:00 UTC