Two park rangers were injured by what is believed to have been a landmine while their five-man team was patrolling in the Pha Daeng National Park in Chai Prakan district of Chiang Mai this morning (Tuesday).
Chaiwat Limlikhitaksorn, director of the National Parks Office, said that the rangers had been on routine patrol between Ban Pha Daeng in Chai Prakan district and Ban Arunothai in Chiang Dao since yesterday.
They spent the night camped in the forest, west of Ban Pha Daeng, and resumed their patrol this morning. One of them stepped on what is believed to have been a landmine, allegedly planted by a drug trafficking gang. The two injured park rangers were taken to the provincial hospital by their colleagues.
Chaiwat said that he had asked the Thai army to send a bomb disposal squad to check the area for landmines.
He also said that landmines are uncommon in the northern forests, unlike forests in north-eastern provinces bordering Cambodia, citing a case two years ago when a park ranger lost a leg when he stepped on a landmine in Yod Dome Wildlife Sanctuary.
