Kaeng Krachan, in Phetchaburi’s Kaeng Krachan and Nong Ya Plong districts, is Thailand’s largest national park.

More than 2,000 rai of forest in and around the park has been burnt since last Monday. The fire was still smouldering in several areas yesterday.

Forest officials are working to find out who lit the fires and why.

Phetchaburi Environment and Nature Conservation Foundation chairwoman Sumon Sutawiriyawat said she feared that severe and continuous fires might affect efforts to register Kaeng Krachan forest as a World Heritage site. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) might raise questions over Thailand’s ability to manage and protect the forest, she said.

“It is clear that the wildfires in Kaeng Krachan forest were caused by humans.”

She said the bushfires harmed the ecology of the forest, killing many wild animals and destroying the habitat of many animal species.

However, National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department director Thanya Nettithammakun said he did not think these latest fires would affect the World Heritage proposal.

“Unesco did not caution us about this, instead they are looking to see how we manage the Karen minority that live in the forest. But we have already prepared our answers in case they raise concern about wildfires,” Thanya said.

The bushfires were mostly now under control, he said, as hundreds of national park officers and soldiers had been deployed to fight them.

“The department also sent helicopters to carry water to extinguish the fire from above, because of difficulties in entering the burning area on foot,” he said.

Kaeng Krachan National Park Chief Kamol Neunyai said that the wildfires had destroyed about 2,000 rai of forestland within the national park.

“We found out that the fires broke out in many spots, indicating the fire was caused by humans. Due to the arid conditions of the forest during the dry season – and the strong winds -the fires spread very fast,” Kaeng said.

“We have sent 180 national park officers to gather evidence about the people who started the fire and arrest them. However, for now we still cannot confirm who was responsible and why they lit the fires.”

Sumon said that many areas of Kaeng Krachan were rainforest, which normally does not burn naturally. But this time many areas in the rainforest had caught fire as well.