Phuket park successfully reclaims 'billions of baht' of land

PHUKET: Sirinart Marine National Park is ready to take back a total of 445 rai of encroached land – potentially worth billions of baht – after the Land Department halted upgrades from SorKor 1 to Chanote on the land involved.

Yesterday (September 2) park chief Kitiphat Tharaphiban explained that the land sits inside the boundaries of the park, and of the Khao Ruak Khao Muang Park, the precursor of Sirinart.

He explained that five parcels of land were at issue, claimed by four individuals. The would-be owners had gone to the Land Department to get the papers upgraded to full ownership.

But the applications had been opposed by park officials who argued that all the land was inside the park, and that apart from a five-rai parcel with rubber trees on it, none of the land had every been farmed.

He said that if the chanotes had been approved, the land would have a sale value in the billions of baht because it bordered on the beach, effectively giving the owners private beach frontage.

The Land Department stop the processing of the chanote request for the five rai after discovering that the claim to ownership had been based on a “flying SorKor 1” – a land paper for a different piece of land.

Sirinat officers will visit the five pieces of land and if they find any structures these will be demolished.

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