Sirinat National Park ( th, อุทยานแห่งชาติสิรินาถ) is a

national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

in Phuket Province,

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 bo ...

. This park, with sections on land and sea, is in the northwest of the island of Phuket.

Geography

Sirinat National Park is in Thalang District, about north of

Phuket Phuket (; th, ภูเก็ต, , ms, Bukit or ''Tongkah''; Hokkien:普吉; ) is one of the southern provinces (''changwat'') of Thailand. It consists of the island of Phuket, the country's largest island, and another 32 smaller islands of ...

town on the coastal section surrounding

Phuket International Airport Phuket International Airport ( th, ท่าอากาศยานภูเก็ต, ) is an international airport serving the Phuket Province of Thailand. It is in the north of Phuket Island, from the centre of Phuket City. The airport ...

. The park's total area is 56,250 rai ~ , with of marine area and land-based. The park includes four main beaches: Hat Nai Thon, Hat Nai Yang, Hat Mai Khao, and Hat Sai Kaeo. Hat Mai Khao is Phuket's longest beach.

History

The park was originally known as Nai Yang National Park and became Thailand's 32nd national park on 13 July 1981. It was renamed Sirinat National Park in 1992. A 2014 ''Bangkok Post''

editorial An editorial, or leading article (UK) or leader (UK) is an article written by the senior editorial people or publisher of a newspaper, magazine, or any other written document, often unsigned. Australian and major United States newspapers, suc ...

said that, "The latest questionable development in the sad saga of Sirinat National Park in Phuket province raises serious and vexing issues. Among the most pertinent is the old paradox of "Who will watch the watchers?" The

Royal Thai Navy The Royal Thai Navy ( Abrv: RTN, ทร.; th, กองทัพเรือไทย, ) is the naval warfare force of Thailand. Established in 1906, it was modernised by the Admiral Prince Abhakara Kiartiwongse (1880–1923) who is known a ...

has moved into the precious park on the pretext of providing security. But the threats to this little jewel of national land are not physical, and heavily armed military men provide no solution at all". In January 2016, it was reported that about 1,200

rai RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...

of Sirinat Park land was "detached" from the park by unscrupulous officials and sold to property developers, completed with illegal deeds, for 40 million baht per rai or approximately 50 billion baht in total. "The land had been detached from the national park so investers iccould build resorts and several well-known hotels,...", according to Mr Damrong Phidet, a former director-general of the National Parks, Wildlife and Plants Conservation Department.

Attractions

Sirinat National Park is best known for its well-preserved white sand beaches. Also, Hat Mai Khao and Hat Nai Yang are both

sea turtle Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerhead, ...

nesting areas. Between November and February sea turtles come to lay eggs on these beaches.

Flora and fauna

The park's beach forests, approximately in area, consist of numerous tree species with the effect of providing a windbreak during tropical storms and stabilising the beach sands. Tree species include common ironwood,

tulip tree ''Liriodendron'' () is a genus of two species of characteristically large trees, deciduous over most of their populations, in the magnolia family (Magnoliaceae). These trees are widely known by the common name tulip tree or tuliptree for their ...

tropical almond ''Terminalia catappa'' is a large tropical tree in the leadwood tree family, Combretaceae, native to Asia, Australia, the Pacific, Madagascar and Seychelles. Common names in English include country almond, Indian almond, Malabar almond, sea almon ...

, white barringtonia,

cajeput tree Cajeput tree is a common name used for certain classification of tree that has a white spongy bark that is flexible and can easily flake off the trunk. The Cajeput tree is of the genus ''Melaleuca'', native to Australia and is commonly known in ...

Alexandrian laurel Alexandrian laurel is a common name for several plants and may refer to: *''Calophyllum inophyllum ''Calophyllum inophyllum'' is a large evergreen plant, commonly called tamanu, oil-nut, mastwood, beach calophyllum or beautyleaf. It is native ...

screwpine ''Pandanus'' is a genus of monocots with some 750 accepted species. They are palm-like, dioecious trees and shrubs native to the Old World tropics and subtropics. The greatest number of species are found in Madagascar and Malaysia. Common names ...

ashoka tree Ashoka tree is a common name for two plants which are frequently confused with each other: *'' Saraca asoca'', native to South Asia and western Myanmar *'' Saraca indica'', native to eastern Myanmar and Southeast Asia *''Monoon longifolium '' ...

, black plum, elephant apple and

morning glory Morning glory (also written as morning-glory) is the common name for over 1,000 species of flowering plants in the family Convolvulaceae, whose current taxonomy and systematics are in flux. Morning glory species belong to many genera, some of ...

. Beach forest birds include

magpie-robin The magpie-robins or shamas (from ''shama'', Bengali and Hindi for ''C. malabaricus'') are medium-sized insectivorous birds (some also eat berries and other fruit) in the genus ''Copsychus''. They were formerly in the thrush family Turdidae, but ...

, common myna, spotted dove,

Asian fairy-bluebird The Asian fairy-bluebird (''Irena puella'') is a medium-sized, arboreal passerine bird. This fairy-bluebird is found in forests across tropical southern Asia, Indochina and the Greater Sundas. Two or three eggs are laid in a small cup nest in a t ...

, oriole,

greater racket-tailed drongo The greater racket-tailed drongo (''Dicrurus paradiseus'') is a medium-sized Asian bird which is distinctive in having elongated outer tail feathers with webbing restricted to the tips. They are placed along with other drongos in the family Dic ...

and some

bulbul The bulbuls are members of a family, Pycnonotidae, of medium-sized passerine songbirds, which also includes greenbuls, brownbuls, leafloves, and bristlebills. The family is distributed across most of Africa and into the Middle East, tropical As ...

species. Sirinat National Park also hosts a small area (1 square kilometre) of

mangrove forest Mangrove forests, also called mangrove swamps, mangrove thickets or mangals, are productive wetlands that occur in coastal intertidal zones. Mangrove forests grow mainly at tropical and subtropical latitudes because mangroves cannot withstand fr ...

, located where freshwater and seawater mix in estuarine areas. Tree species here include

red mangrove Red mangrove may refer to at least three plant species: * ''Rhizophora mangle'' * ''Rhizophora mucronata'' * ''Rhizophora stylosa'' {{Short pages monitor