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Published on July 31, 2007

The centre will be built in their village just 250 metres from the prehistoric site. It will provide information about the petrified freshwater snails, and the villagers' trials in battling Egat, Maliwan Nakwirot, leader of the Network of Patients' Rights against Mae Moh Toxic Emissions, said yesterday.

"We decided to set up a study centre for other communities to learn about mollusc fossils, share our fighting experience with government agencies, and how we won the lawsuit," she said.

In April  2005, villagers petitioned the Central Administra-tive Court to order Egat to stop excavating the area in preparation for opening the lignite mine. The petition accused the Cabinet, a former industry minister, the Primary Industry and Mines Department and Egat.

The court ordered Egat to conduct an immediate environmental-impact assessment and revoked its mining licence for the fossil zone. Egat also was required to build embankments and employ measures to protect the mound, which has partly collapsed from the digging, from further damage within 30 days.

The Fine Arts Department was also ordered to register the "cemetery" as a natural historic site where 13-million-year-old fossils were found.

The fossil lode was discovered on 43 rai of land. It measures 12 metres deep, 300m long and 230m wide.

The huge deposit is the only one of its kind in the world.

Egat continued digging out the site after the Cabinet agreed on December 21, 2004 to reduce the protected area from 43 rai to 18 rai, even though it had announced the entire protected area would cover 52 rai.

Egat claimed it would lose about Bt7 billion each year or Bt182 billion over its 26-year concession if the entire 52 rai were put under protection.

Pongphon Sarnsamak

The Nation