KANCHANABURI: Wichian Chinawong, the chief of the western Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary who arrested construction tycoon Premchai Karnasuta, has requested a transfer for health and family reasons.
He told reporters at the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation on Wednesday that he was under no pressure as a result of the high-profile poaching case involving Premchai. His desire for a transfer dated back before then.
He had also suffered from haemorrhoids for about a year, and the symptoms were getting worse. Working in the wildlife sanctuary made it difficult to get to a hospital for treatment. And the dirt tracks in the sanctuary were too bumpy for comfort, Mr Wichian said.
He sought a transfer to a job in the Northeast so he could be closer to his wife and year-old son, who live in Si Sa Ket province.
Mr Wichian said he had to testify in the local court during the initial stages of the Premchai poaching case. Now it had moved on to the Appeal Court, and he would not have to stay in the area to testify.
Sompoj Maneerat, spokesman of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, said Mr Wichian filed his transfer request last month and the director-general of the department was likely to make a decision in about a month.
The spokesman said Mr Wichian might be assigned to Protected Area Regional Office 10 in the northeastern province of Udon Thani.
Mr Wichian has worked at Thungyai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary in Thong Pha Phum district of Kanchanaburi since 2017.
Last year, he won an award from the United Nations for outstanding work in preventing transboundary environmental crime.
The award presentation followed his arrest of Premchai, president of Italian-Thai Development Plc, and accomplices at their unauthorised camp in the western Thungyai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary in Thong Pha Phum district on Feb 4, 2018. They were found with carcasses of a rare black leopard, a kalij pheasant and a barking deer, and with guns and ammunition.
Last Thursday the Appeal Court increased the poachers' jail terms, mostly to more than three years.
