The Civil Court’s environmental division has finished hearing of evidence from the Thai plaintiff and the US defendant over the controversial filming of Hollywood film The Beach, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, at Krabi’s famous Maya Bay in 1998, and expected to hand down the judgement in July.
The Thai plaintiff comprising Krabi Provincial Administration Organization and the Ao Nang Tambon Administration Organization, filed a civil suit against the Royal Forest Department (RFD) and its former director-general Plodprasop Suraswadi, former Agriculture Minister Pongpol Adireksarn, the US film maker 20th Century Fox and its Thai coordinator Santa International Film Production Co, after finding that the film maker’s alterations of the beach’s landscape have led to irreversible ecological damage to Hat Noppharat Thara – Mu Ko Phi Phi national park.
The plaintiff sought 100-million-baht compensation for rehabilitation of the area.
The court accepted the lawsuit in 2012, and conducted its own inspection of the beach in 2013, to collect evidence and question local people.
Legal experts said the site inspection by the judges could set precedent for environmental related cases in future.
The court had also formed a tripartite academic team comprising the court, the plaintiff and the defendant to jointly work out rehabilitation plan.
The US film maker had offered to set up a fund for the rehabilitation for the ecological damaged inflicted on Maya bay.
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