Budo–Su-ngai Padi National Park () is a national park in Narathiwat Province,

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

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

Tenasserim Hills The Tenasserim Hills or Tenasserim Range (, ; , , ; ) is the geographical name of a roughly 1,700 km long mountain chain, part of the Indo-Malayan mountain system in Southeast Asia. Despite their relatively scant altitude these mo ...

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 (Abbreviation, Abrv: RFD; , ) is a department in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (Thailand), Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE), part of the Government of Thailand. History On 18 Se ...

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 (, ) 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. It lies 1,141 km south ...

, Yala and

Pattani Province Pattani (, ; , , , ; ) is one of the southern provinces of Thailand. Neighboring provinces are (from southeast clockwise) Narathiwat, Yala, and Songkhla. Its capital is the town of Pattani. Geography Pattani is on the Malay Peninsula, wi ...

s. The Budo mountain range is part of the Indo-Malayan equatorial

tropical rainforest Tropical rainforests are dense and warm rainforests with high rainfall typically found between 10° north and south of the Equator. They are a subset of the tropical forest biome that occurs roughly within the 28° latitudes (in the torrid zo ...

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 here in 1988. 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 ...

'', 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 ( ; ; ; : rhinoceros or rhinoceroses), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant taxon, extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates (perissodactyls) in the family (biology), famil ...

, agile gibbons,

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

s, and Sumatran serows. The most important animal is the spectacled langur that inhabits Southeast Asia, from the south of Myanmar and Thailand all the way to Malaysia and some islands. It lives in high mountains and 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 ''Semnopithecus'' is a genus of Old World monkeys native to the Indian subcontinent, with all species with the exception of two being commonly known as gray langurs. Traditionally only the species ''Semnopithecus entellus'' was recognized, but si ...

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