Khao Sok National Park was established in 1980 under the supervision of the National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuary Network, covering an area of over 4,000 square kilometers, making it the second largest in Thailand. It is a national park in the south of the country, covering one of the world’s oldest rainforests, stretching over 739 kilometers, covering both forest areas and the Ratchaprapha Dam area, commonly known as “Cheow Lan Dam”. It is a place of great biodiversity, with a variety of plants and trees, as well as being home to 48 species of mammals, 311 species of birds, countless reptiles and insects. In addition, the long and steep limestone mountains, some of which are as high as 1,000 meters, challenge the eyes and impress visitors.
Geological studies of the beautiful formations of Khao Sok Mountain Range show that it is a coral reef that stretched across Asia during the Permian period (between 280-255 million years ago). This evidence shows that this coral reef is about 5 times the size of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. This coral reef stretches between Borneo and China, through Thailand and other parts of Southeast Asia. In addition, climbers have found marine fossils on the top of the karst peak, a limestone mountain range resembling a coral reef, which clearly shows that the cliffs that tower above the forest floor were once underwater. It is believed that humans and other mammals migrated to Khao Sok during the ice age about 37,000 years ago. The shallower sea level allowed mammals to move freely between Borneo, Sumatra, Koh Chang, Malaysia and southern Thailand.
Later, about 5,000 years ago, during the heyday of the Srivijaya Empire, which covered the islands of Sumatra, Java, and southern Thailand, which was a famous and popular shipping route because it was a port with a point for shipping goods between China, through many countries, and to countries in the European continent, such as the trading giant India, if they wanted to send goods to China, they had to go through the Strait of Malacca, which required a long detour and had to be careful of many pirates. Some merchants therefore sailed to Takua Pa Port and Ranong Port, which were in the north of the Srivijaya Empire at that time, and hired local people to transport goods by elephants in order to load the goods onto boats and sail them along the Khlong Sok River to the other side of the ocean before sailing to China, which allowed the Srivijaya Empire at that time to receive a large amount of tax from shipping goods. These events can be assumed from many ancient objects that were discovered in caves and along the Khlong Sok River, such as fragments of Persian pottery and fragments of coins from Indians and Arabs.
In 1785, Burma sent troops to attack the western side of Thailand. This caused Thai people to flee from the war and live in the mountainous terrain and dense forests and settle in Khao Sok. Due to its fertility and the Sok River flowing through it, people worked as farmers to make a living. They also extorted protection money from people from Khirirat at that time who had to travel to Takua Pa to trade. Due to its fertility, more people immigrated to live here. They raised pigs to sell. However, in 1944, smallpox was severely prevalent in this region. Due to its remoteness, many people died. Those who survived were afraid and moved away. They named this area “Ban Sop” or “Khao Sop”, which may mean “village of the dead” and “mountain of corpses”. Therefore, no one dared to settle here anymore. Later, it was changed to “Khao Sok” until today.
In 1950, a number of people came to Khao Sok to mine tin. Later in 1960, Road 401 Surat Thani-Khao Sok-Takua Pa-Phang Nga was built, which affected natural resources. Many mountains were blown up and trees were cut down. However, the abundance of this forest was not exhausted. Ten years later, a group of communists and students fled from political protests in Bangkok and set up bases in caves in the dense forest to avoid government surveillance at that time. Even though the landscape was high and low mountains covered with dense rainforest, it was difficult to track them down. The military operation to track down communists and students who fled from the unrest made it difficult to cut down trees for sale, sell forest products, and mine because no one dared to do it, so the natural resources in the Khao Sok area remained abundant.
Soon after, the insurgents were pardoned and Khao Sok National Park was established to preserve the forest and wildlife for the future. However, only a few years later, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand was granted permission to build a 94-meter-high dam blocking the Khlong Saeng River, causing water to overflow and flood over 20% of the park’s forest area. As a result, many villages were submerged under the vast expanse of water. Many people were forced to relocate under the government’s conflict-ridden new settlement. The impact of the dam construction also caused the extinction of over 52 species of freshwater fish and many other animals, such as the Java rhinoceros and the Gurney’s hawk. Despite the significant damage caused by the dam construction, the lake has since become a beautiful tourist attraction with floating bungalows, a fishing village, several hiking trails, viewpoints, coral caves, Prakae Phet caves and waterfalls. Moreover, boat trips to see the various wildlife that show up during the dry season are exciting and impressive for all tourists, making it a famous tourist attraction to this day.
E-mail: stay@khaosokecoresort.com
https://www.khaosokecoresort.com/khaosok-getaway-thai/