In an apparent tit-for-tat, the Agricultural Land Reform Office (ALRO) has decided to take legal action against Chaiwat Limlikhitaksorn, chief of the National Parks Office at the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, for allegedly removing demarcation stones from Sor Por Kor land around Khao Yai National Park.

On Sunday, ALRO Secretary-General Winarote Sapsongsuk ordered the acting chief of Nakhon Ratchasima ALRO office to file a complaint with the Mu Si police, in Pak Chong district, against Chaiwat and his men for violating Sections 363 and 334 of the Criminal Code, over their arbitrary removal of 27 Sor Por Kor demarcation stones from land claimed by ALRO, in Village 10 of Mu Si sub-district on February 13th.

ALRO claims that the disputed land is part of the 5,423.36 hectares of the Sor Por Kor (land reform) area, which is outside the boundary of the national park, as specified in a Royal Decree dated September 18th 1962, demarcating the Khao Yai National Park’s territory.

It also claims that the cabinet adopted a resolution on March 3rd, 1987, designating, to the Ministry of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, the allocation of the land to impoverished farmers under the land reform scheme.

ALRO refers to the recent ruling, by the Army Survey Department, that the disputed area is outside the boundary of the national park.

Last Thursday, director-general of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, Atthaphon Charoenchansa, said that the Army Survey Department’s decision was based on its “field book”, when determining that the disputed land is beyond the Khao Yai boundary, but the department’s claim over the land was based on the Royal Decree and other factors.

While there is still no solution to the dispute, he suggested that ALRO withholds the issuance of Sor Por Kor land certificates and that the demarcation stones, found on the disputed land, be removed.

The area around Khao Yai National Park is eagerly sought after by developers, for the construction of condominiums, housing estates and golf courses.

It was commonly alleged that many of the recipients of the Sor Por Kor land around Khao Yai are not actually impoverished farmers, but wealthy people or their nominees.