Phra Budda Isara has admitted that he encroached on forest reserves in Chiang Mai’s Mae Wang district but with an intention to reforest the area.
The abbot of Wat Or Noi in Nakhon Pathom went to the Forest Department on Friday to hand over documents to forest officials and to express his readiness to face legal consequences for his forest encroachment.
Phra Budda Isara said that the encroached area in national forest reserves was about 300 rai and not 3,000 rai as wrongly reported. He noted that the area in question was stripped of forest cover and he decided to plant trees on it.
The abbot went on saying that he had been reforesting denuded forests since 1989 and had reforested about 1,000 rai so far.
He called on the Forest Department to take legal action against all forest encroachers, including himself.
