Asian elephants fall victim to poor development policies in Bangladesh
Asian elephants fall victim to poor development policies in Bangladesh
Abu Siddique, Mongabay
March 12, 2025
See link
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/asian-elephants-fall-victim-to-poor-development-policies-in-bangladesh/
for photos.
Despite planning and accomplishing some wildlife conservation actions over
the years, Bangladesh has yet to achieve success in protecting its
elephants (Elephas maximus indicus). Instead, the country has lately
witnessed large death tolls of the species every year, mostly due to the
conflict with humans.
The recent death of an elephant calf while it crossed a railway track in
Chunati Wildlife Sanctuary and the death of two humans in the Korean Export
Processing Zone (KEPZ) in Chittagong are two examples of many such
conflicts. Both incidents are in the country’s southeast, which comprises
the Chittagong Hill Tracts — Rangamati, Khagrachhari and Bandarban
districts — and Cox’s Bazar’s forest, where most of the elephants in
Bangladesh live.
Besides these, conflicts resulting in the deaths of humans and elephants in
the country’s northeastern elephant habitats — Jamalpur, Sherpur, Mymensigh
and Netrokona districts — are common, too.
According to data by IUCN, Bangladesh has recorded the presence of
elephants in 44 forest ranges covering 1,518 square kilometers (586 square
miles) and 12 elephant corridors within their habitats. Elephant routes are
the paths the species uses daily for their food and other needs, while
corridors are where elephants pass from one habitat to another.
As of 2016, according to the IUCN, Bangladesh had only 268 resident wild
elephants, and they are critically endangered in the country. Besides the
resident elephants, some more frequently enter Bangladesh’s forests from
neighboring India and Myanmar.
As per the count of Bangladesh’s Forest Department, between 2017 and 2021,
at least 50 elephants were killed in Bangladesh in humans-elephant
conflicts. The highest annual death toll was 34 in the year 2021.
The Causes of Conflicts
Wildlife researchers identified the different reasons that cause conflicts
in the two regions as unplanned infrastructure development from the public
and private sectors in the southeast and the ‘closed elephant pass’ in
transboundary border fencing between Bangladesh and India in the northeast.
According to IUCN’s Connectivity Conservation Specialist Group, in 2018,
Bangladesh constructed a 103-kilometer (64-mile) railway from Chittagong to
Cox’s Bazar, of which 27 km (16.8 mi) run through three protected areas,
where almost half of the country’s elephants live: Chunati Wildlife
Sanctuary, Fasiakhali Wildlife Sanctuary and Medhakachhapia National Park.
In addition to the railway track, the KEPZ and the China Economic &
Industrial Zone are the two major infrastructure developments that overlap
with the elephant corridor in Chittagong.
Mohammed Mostafa Feeroz, a zoology professor at Bangladesh’s Jahangirnagar
University, said that since the country needs both economic development and
elephant conservation at the same time, the government should follow the
proper environmental impact assessment before taking on the development
projects to avoid conflicts.
He cited the example of the railway between Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar and
said, “If the rail line could be taken 5 km (3.1 mi) away from the current
location, the elephant corridor could be avoided. [But it hasn’t, hence]
the conflict.”
In the northeast, elephant herds usually come down to Bangladesh from the
hills of neighboring India’s Meghalaya state during the rice harvesting
season between December and May in search of food before returning to their
home range. This behavior has been observed for a long time. However, since
2019, they have been trapped in Bangladesh as India closed the gates for
elephants passing on the transboundary border fencing installed across the
Bangladesh-India international border.
Consequently, the trapped elephants have been roaming the locality since,
and clashes with humans are increasing, Mostafa Feeroz said.
Other important factors behind the clash are increased human settlement in
elephants habitats and corridors to meet the growing population demand.
As an example, in 2017, during the mass influx of Rohingya refugees from
neighboring Myanmar, the government temporarily set up shelters in the
forests of Cox’s Bazar and Bandarban district of CHT. Many of these are
part of wild elephant habitats.
Conservation Initiatives
In 2018, the Bangladeshi government formulated the 10-year-long Elephant
Conservation Action Plan to guide the implementation of elephant
conservation activities in the country.
Besides this, under a project called Sustainable Forests & Livelihoods
(SUFAL), the Forest Department, along with other organizations like IUCN
Bangladesh, engaged the local communities in conflict-prone areas by
forming Elephant Response Teams (ERT) as a conservation tool to avoid
conflict between humans and elephants.
An ERT consists of local people who play the role of making people aware of
elephants, including providing information about elephant herd movements in
their area and spreading awareness about the conservation of elephants and
what should or should not be done when faced with a wild animal.
To recompense the losses of human lives and their resources, in 2010,
Bangladesh introduced a compensation package for the families who lose
their members and resources like households and crop fields to wildlife
conflict.
In 2021, the government increased the compensation. Under the new
provision, the family of a deceased person could receive 300,000 takas
($2470) instead of 100,000 takas ($823), and an injured person will receive
100,000 takas ($823) instead of 50,000 takas ($412). A maximum of 50,000
takas ($412) can be claimed in the case of damage of resources.
The Way Out
In 2024, following the conflicts between humans and elephants in KEPZ, the
government formed an expert committee to investigate, find reasons for the
conflicts, and find solutions.
The committee suggested that the government ensure the coexistence of
humans and elephants by following several conservation measures, including
forming an adequate number of ERTs to inform people when elephant herds
move towards their locality.
ERTs aside, Monirul H. Khan, a wildlife researcher at Jahangirnagar
University and a committee member, told Mongabay, “[Regulating] the
behavioral changes of humans against the elephant is urgent as humans are
becoming restless nowadays.”
An example, he said, is how locals used fireworks or other disturbing
noises to keep elephants away from their crops and settlements earlier.
However, in recent years, they have been installing electric fences, which
are deadly. The number of elephant deaths due to electrocution has
increased.
Regarding the trapped elephants in northeastern Bangladesh, Mostafa Feeroz
said that since the issue is transboundary, the government should
immediately talk to its Indian counterpart so that at least some of the
border gates can be opened so that the elephants can return to their home
range and avoid increased clashes between humans and elephants in
Bangladesh.
Md. Amir Hossain Chowdhury, chief conservator of forests, told Mongabay,
“We have recently drafted a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) under a
protocol signed by both countries in 2020 about transboundary elephant
conservation. As soon as we receive a positive nod from Bangladesh’s
Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, we will share the SOP
with India and discuss the future of trapped elephants.”