Kanchanaburi authorities yesterday evening managed to start removing tigers from a renowned tiger temple after their plan to relocate the remaining 137 tigers was earlier impeded by temple officials. The department of national parks,wildlife and plant conservation yesterday sought the kanchanaburi provincial court's approval for a search warrant for wat pa luang ta maha bua,known as the tiger temple,in sai yok district,paving the way for them to start relocating the tigers,which they say are kept at the temple illegally. The court yesterday issued the search warrant as requested. The search warrant was sought after the temple earlier blocked department officials' access after they had start moving the tigers to wildlfe breeding centres around the country. More than 300 nationnal park officials and police offcers, led by the department's deputy director-genral adisorn noochdumrong, were stationed outside the temple while the entrance of the temple was blocked with barriers to prevent authorities from entering. The talks lasted about half an hour but failed to produce a solution,which
Prompted the department to seek the warrant from the court. Pol col supitpong pakcharung, vicechairman of the wat pa laung ta maha bua foundation which oversees the tigers, said he would not allow authorities to move the animals. He also vowed to take legal action against those who trespassed on the temple's grounds. According to mr adisorn, the temple claimed it had filed a suit with the central administrative court against movers to relocate the tigers and wanted the authorities to wat for the ruling