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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 systemEncyclopædia Britannica, 1988, volume 10, page 694 in Southeast Asia.
Despite their relatively scant altitude these mountains form an effective barrier between Thailand and Myanmar in their northern and central region. There are only two main transnational roads and cross-border points between Kanchanaburi and Tak, at the Three Pagodas Pass and at Mae Sot. The latter is located beyond the northern end of the range, where the Tenasserim Hills meet the Dawna Range. Minor cross-border points are Sing Khon, NNT - Prachuap Khiri Khan to upgrade Sing Khon border crossing near Prachuap Khiri Khan, as well as Bong Ti and Phu Nam Ron west of Kanchanaburi. The latter is expected to gain in importance if the planned Dawei Port Project goes ahead, along with a highway and a railway line between Bangkok and that harbor. Table A1-1-1a. Prospective projects in Mekong sub-region
The southern section of this extensive chain of mountains runs along the Kra Isthmus into the Malay Peninsula almost reaching Singapore. Many rivers have their source in these mountains, but none of them are very long.
Eastwards, in Kanchanaburi Province on the Thai side, the mountain range is crossed by the Khwae Yai River and the Khwae Noi River. In this area small hill ridges alternate with narrow valleys that are often only about 2 km wide and further east there are only isolated hills, where the range ends in the Central Plain of Thailand. Further south the Phachi River, the Pranburi River and the Phetchaburi River flow eastwards from the range towards the Gulf of Siam.
The westernmost range is separated from the Tenasserim coast by the Three Pagodas Fault. West of it lie the Dawna Range, the Karen Hills and the valleys of the Salween and the Gyaing. Southwards on the western side, the Ye River, Heinze River, Dawei River (Tavoy), Great Tenasserim (Tanintharyi) and the Lenya River rivers are relatively short and flow into the Andaman Sea. Further south the Kraburi River forms the southern border between Thailand and Burma.
The range is home to several distinct ecoregions. The Dawna and other northern ranges are in the Kayah-Karen montane rain forests ecoregion. The Tenasserim-South Thailand semi-evergreen rain forests cover the Bilauktaung range and the Isthmus of Kra, and extend to the coast on both sides of the isthmus. The Kayah-Karen montane rain forests and Tenasserim-South Thailand semi-evergreen forests together form the Kayah-Karen/Tenasserim moist forests ecoregion Kayah Karen Tenasserim Ecoregion which is included in the Global 200 list of ecoregions identified by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) as priorities for conservation.
The Kangar-Pattani floristic boundary runs across the peninsula in southern Thailand and northernmost Malaysia, marking the boundary between the large biogeographic regions of Indochina to the north and Sundaland and Malesia to the south. The forests north of the boundary are characterized by seasonally-deciduous trees, while the Sundaland forests have more year-round rainfall and the trees are mostly evergreen. The ranges in Peninsular Malaysia are part of the Peninsular Malaysian montane rain forests ecoregion.Wikramanayake, Eric; Eric Dinerstein; Colby J. Loucks; et al. (2002). Terrestrial Ecoregions of the Indo-Pacific: a Conservation Assessment. Washington, DC: Island Press.
The Tenasserim Hills form the habitat for a number of endangered species, including the Gurney's pitta, endemic to Thailand and Burma, as well as the Asian elephant and tiger. The Sumatran rhinoceros has been reported in the northern section of the wider range. There are records from the north of Tenasserim proper, where there were numerous reports in 1962,McNeely, J.A. and Cronin, E.W. 1972. Rhinos in Thailand. Oryx 11(6) to Kota Tinggi in the south where a rhino was captured in 1994.Zainal Zahari, Z. (1995) Review of Sumatran rhinoceros ( Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) population in Peninsular Malaysia. Journal of Wildlife and Parks, 14, 1–15. The Endau-Rompin National Park in Malaysia has the largest remaining Sumatran rhinoceros population in the range.
Other species include the sambar deer, barking deer, Sumatran serow, red goral, leopard, Kitti's hog-nosed bat, the Tenasserim white-bellied rat and the Tenasserim lutung, as well as a number of bird species and the Tenasserim Mountain bent-toed gecko. Among the fishes in the streams and rivulets of the range the emperor loach and the Tenasserim garra deserve mention.
The Tanintharyi National Park and the Tanintharyi Nature Reserve were established in 2005, and the Lenya National Park was proposed in 2002 and 2004, on the Burmese side in order to implement habitat conservation, but illegal logging driven by greed and corruption is an ongoing problem on both sides of the border. Myanmar Protected Areas - Context, Current Status and Challenges On the Thai side the Kaeng Krachan National Park was demarcated already in 1981, covering parts of the districts of Nong Ya Plong, Kaeng Krachan and Tha Yang of Phetchaburi Province, and of Hua Hin of Prachuap Khiri Khan Province. The Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park is located in the Khao Sam Roi Yot limestone mountains, a coastal offshoot of the main Tenasserim range and Nam Tok Huay Yang National Park is another park in Prachuap Khiri Khan Province that is located on the Thai side by the border area between 100 and 1200 metres above sea level. In Malaysia the main protected areas in the range area are Endau-Rompin National Park, Gunung Ledang National Park, Taman Negara and Selangor State Park.
The killing of wildlife Asian elephant is a big problem at Kaeng Krachan National Park, with the authorities being unable to control the poachers. Elephant slaughter: The gangs get bold Some park officials are allegedly involved in the trade of elephant parts. 5 park officials wanted for poaching elephants - Witness 'saw carcass burnt' at Kaeng Krachan (Thailand)
In January 1942, at the beginning of the Japanese conquest of Burma, the main body of the Japanese 33d Division began the main attack towards Rangoon westward from Thailand across the Kawkareik Pass in the Tenasserim Range. A road was cut across the mountains by Japanese military engineers, but many infantry units crossed the range on foot in an arduous march through the forests and cliffs. This road was impracticable during the rainy season, when mud and rivulets made advance difficult for the Japanese Infantry and abounded.Kazao Tamayama & John Nunneley, Tales by Japanese Soldiers, Cassell Military Paperbacks,
Between 1942 and 1943, during the construction of the Burma Railway between Bangkok and Yangon, Hellfire Pass in the Tenasserim Range was a particularly difficult section of the line to build. It was the largest rock cutting on the railway, also known as the "Death Railway", coupled with its general remoteness and the lack of proper construction tools during building. The Australian, British people, Dutch people, other allied prisoners of war, along with Chinese people, Malay people and Tamil people labourers, were required by the Japanese to complete the cutting of the stretch. 69 men were beaten to death by Japanese and Korean people guards in the six weeks it took to build the railway pass, and many more died from cholera, dysentery, starvation, and exhaustion (Wigmore 568).
On 19 July 2011, a Royal Thai Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed in these mountains, killing 9. The chopper had been sent out to recover five bodies of victims of another helicopter crash involving a Bell UH-1 Iroquois, that had occurred two days earlier while looking for Illegal logging in Kaeng Krachan National Park near the Burmese border west of Phetchaburi. The Seattle Times The Black Hawk helicopter crashed near 978 m high Yage Taung mountain in the Tanintharyi National Park zone in Burma, close to the border with Thailand. AIT News; Myanmar army discover Thai Black Hawk helicopter crash location
A third helicopter, a Bell 212, also crashed in the same area on Sunday, 25 July a few miles further east close to the Kaeng Krachan Reservoir. Bangkok Post - Helicopter crashes 'explained' Superstitious people blamed the three consecutive crashes on the fact that, according to Thai folklore, the densely forested mountains of the Tenasserim Range have strong tutelary deity. Bangkok Post - Superstitions haunt forest
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