Kathu Municipality reports 15 people over alleged encroachment on Kamala Mountain forest reserve

Kathu Municipality has filed a complaint against 15 people over alleged encroachment on the Kamala Mountain national forest reserve in Phuket, where heavy machinery was used to clear a route for a trail-running course and a shooting range, according to Thai Post.

The municipality said on 3 November 2026 that it had taken legal action under the National Forest Reserve Act, the Forest Act and the Soil Excavation and Filling Act. It also ordered construction of the trail-running route to stop.

Somchai Pholklam, a senior legal officer at Kathu Municipality, said the affected land lies within more than 300 rai authorised by the Royal Forest Department for municipal use for 30 years, from 2012 to 2042. The authorisation was for the Kathu Mining Museum as a local tourist attraction and did not cover construction or other activities outside that purpose, he said.

The investigation began in February after museum staff heard heavy machinery operating on the mountain and alerted their superiors and Kathu police. Officials and forestry officers found two excavators clearing forest and cutting rubber trees to open a route about 3–4 metres wide. The excavator operators were arrested and charged with encroachment on a national forest reserve, the report said.

A person later claiming to own the land and to have hired the workers presented Por Bor Tor 5 land-tax documents. The municipality said those documents could not be used to claim the right to bring machinery into or develop land within a national forest reserve.

The report said parts of the route had been almost fully levelled and some runners had already begun using it when construction was halted.

Somchai said that none of the 15 people named in the legal action was an actor or other entertainment figure, despite reports linking the case to people in the entertainment industry.

In a separate inspection on 29 June 2026, Phuket district officials, provincial forestry officers and local leaders examined the Kamala Mountain reserve, also known as Khao Nang Phanthurat, near the boundary between Kathu district and Ko Kaeo in Phuket's Muang district. They found signs of a road being cut up the mountain, including sections surfaced with prefabricated concrete, and seized an abandoned excavator for investigators to examine.