Budo–Su-ngai Padi National Park ( th, อุทยานแห่งชาติบูโด-สุไหงปาดี) is a national park in

Narathiwat Province Narathiwat ( th, นราธิวาส, Malay: Menara) is one of the southern provinces (''changwat'') of Thailand. Neighboring provinces are (from west clockwise) Yala and Pattani. To the south it borders the Malaysian state of Kelantan a ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

. It is part of Sankala Khiri mountain range, the southernmost subrange of the

Tenasserim Hills The Tenasserim Hills or Tenasserim Range ( my, တနင်္သာရီ တောင်တန်း, ; th, ทิวเขาตะนาวศรี, , ; ms, Banjaran Tanah Seri/Banjaran Tenang Sari) is the geographical name of a r ...

History

The area was a haven for guerrillas and few people ventured in to see the natural jungle environment here. However, when the situation improved in 1974, the

Royal Forest Department The Royal Forest Department ( Abrv: RFD; th, กรมป่าไม้, ) is a department in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE), part of the Government of Thailand. History On 18 September 1896 King Chulalongkorn establ ...

established Pacho Waterfall Park that became Budo–Su-ngai Padi National Park.

Geography and climate

The park has an area of and covers parts of

Narathiwat Narathiwat ( th, นราธิวาส, ) is a town (thesaban mueang) in southern Thailand and capital of Narathiwat Province. The town is in the Mueang Narathiwat District and was established in 1936. As of 2008, the population was 40,521. ...

, Yala and Pattani Provinces. The Budo mountain range is part of the Indo-Malayan equatorial

tropical rainforest Tropical rainforests are rainforests that occur in areas of tropical rainforest climate in which there is no dry season – all months have an average precipitation of at least 60 mm – and may also be referred to as ''lowland equa ...

that has high humidity because of the year-round rainfall that it gets. The park has several waterfalls, such as Phu Wae, Pacho and Pako. The best known and accessible is "Pacho", on a high cliff. The word "pacho" is a Thai adaption/variant of the Malay word pancur meaning "waterfall".

Flora and fauna

The most distinctive plant is the "golden leaves" or "yandao". This plant was first discovered in 1988 here. The vine leaves are gold in colour, similar to a hardwood tree of the genus ''

Bauhinia ''Bauhinia'' () is a large genus of flowering plants in the subfamily Cercidoideae and tribe Bauhinieae, in the large flowering plant family Fabaceae, with a pantropical distribution. The genus was named after the Bauhin brothers Gaspard and J ...

'', but considerably larger. Some leaves are even larger than the palm of a hand. The edges of the leaves are curved throughout, like two connected ovals. The leaves have a soft velvet-like texture. Rare animals in the area are

rhinoceros A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species ...

, agile gibbons,

tapir Tapirs ( ) are large, herbivorous mammals belonging to the family Tapiridae. They are similar in shape to a pig, with a short, prehensile nose trunk. Tapirs inhabit jungle and forest regions of South and Central America, with one species inh ...

s, and

Sumatran serow The Sumatran serow (''Capricornis sumatraensis sumatraensis''), also known as the southern serow, is a subspecies of the mainland serow native to mountain forests in the Thai-Malay Peninsula and on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. It was previo ...

s. The most important animal is the spectacled langur that inhabits Southeast Asia in the south of Myanmar and Thailand all the way to Malaysia and some islands. It lives on high mountains and in deep jungles in groups of around 30-40. The strongest male is the leader. The langur is usually shy, afraid of humans and not aggressive like monkeys. Apart from the spectacled langur, there are three other types in Thailand; banded langurs,

gray langur Gray langurs, also called Hanuman langurs and Hanuman monkeys, are Old World monkeys native to the Indian subcontinent constituting the genus ''Semnopithecus''. Traditionally only one species ''Semnopithecus entellus'' was recognized, but since a ...

s, and northern spectacled langurs. All four species of langurs are endangered mammals.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Budo - Su-ngai Padi National Park National parks of Thailand Geography of Narathiwat province Tourist attractions in Narathiwat province Titiwangsa Mountains