BANGKOK, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Thailand is toughening up measures to combat forest fires, including a ban on unauthorized access to conserved areas, as unhealthy levels of airborne dust continued to plague most northern provinces on Monday.

Increased surveillance and patrols on protected forest areas will be enforced, and any trespassers caught starting forest fires, a major source of PM 2.5 pollution, will face strict legal action, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Patcharawat Wongsuwan said in a statement on Sunday after meeting with local officials.

The Pollution Control Department reported that air quality in most of the country's 17 northern provinces remained at unsafe levels on Monday, with concentrations of PM 2.5 pollutants in some areas of Chiang Rai province reaching 113.7 micrograms per cubic meter, three times higher than the national safe limit of 37.5.

According to the Thai Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency, 1,031 fire hotspots were detected in the Southeast Asian nation on Sunday, mostly in conserved areas and national forest reserves.

In 2023, 10.5 million patients in Thailand, primarily in the northern and northeastern provinces, were diagnosed with air pollution-related diseases, a 3.6 percent rise from the previous year, Ministry of Public Health data showed. Enditem

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