{"id":130817,"date":"2026-10-27T12:53:48","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T07:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=130817"},"modified":"2026-10-27T14:02:04","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T08:32:04","slug":"phuket-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/phuket-island\/","title":{"rendered":"Flash Floods Hit Thailand&#8217;s Phuket Island, Inundating Several Areas"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Phuket Island Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Flash floods recently inundated several areas of the island of Phuket in Thailand, one of the country\u2019s major tourist destinations.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Phuket Island<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is <\/span><b>Thailand&#8217;s largest island<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and sits on the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/andaman-sea\/\" target=\"_blank\"><b>Andaman Sea<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a marginal sea of the northeastern Indian Ocean.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Located in <\/span><b>southern Thailand<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, it lies off the country&#8217;s western coast.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is known as the \u2018<\/span><b>\u2019Pearl of the Andaman Sea\u2019\u2019.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>History<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was settled as early as the 1st century BCE.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Located on <\/span><b>trading routes between India and China<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Phuket was subjected to foreign influences long before many other parts of Thailand.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Phuket first<\/span><b> became part of a Thai state<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> during the<\/span><b> thirteenth century<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> when Thai armies from Sukhothai wrestled control of the island from the Sirivijaya Empire based in Sumatra.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Phuket is first mentioned as a <\/span><b>major source of tin <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in the <\/span><b>sixteenth century <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">when the island became an <\/span><b>important source of revenue for the Thai kingdom at Ayutthaya<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, as well as an important trading post.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was also during this period that the<\/span><b> first Europeans arrived <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">on Phuket.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Due to Phuket&#8217;s abundant supply of tin and its importance as a trading port, the island&#8217;s economy continued to prosper.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>British secured a tin mining concession<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and<\/span><b> nearly claimed Phuket<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as part of the British Empire.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>residents <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of Phuket comprise <\/span><b>Thais <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">who have migrated from the mainland,<\/span><b> ethnic Chinese,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Malays, and <\/span><b>Chao Leh or \u2018sea-gypsies\u2019 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">who are the original inhabitants of Phuket.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Spanning 48 km in length and 21 km at its widest point, the island features a <\/span><b>hilly and mountainous landscape,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with forests and agricultural plantations covering parts of its interior.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is <\/span><b>reached <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">by bridge <\/span><b>(Sarasin Bridge) from the mainland<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to the north across a narrow strait.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Phuket city<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, located in the <\/span><b>southeastern portion<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the island, is a major port and commercial centre.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The island has also become a <\/span><b>major seaside resort. <\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>News:<\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/international\/flash-floods-inundate-several-areas-of-thailands-phuket-island-after-heavy-rain\/article71625917.ece\/amp\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><b>TH<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Flash floods have affected several areas of Phuket, Thailand&#8217;s largest island and a major tourist destination on the Andaman Sea. Here is its location and geographic significance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":130789,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[11177,21,22,23],"class_list":["post-130817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-phuket-island","tag-prelims-pointers","tag-upsc-current-affairs","tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130817"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130872,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130817\/revisions\/130872"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}