Specialist committee formed to protect elephants in Korean EPZ

A specialist committee has been formed to ensure the protection of elephants in the Korean Export Processing Zone (EPZ) area of Chattogram, under the initiative of Syeda Rizwana Hasan, adviser of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. 

The committee will submit a report to the ministry within the next three weeks, containing specific recommendations to ensure a safe working environment for EPZ workers and to resolve human-elephant conflicts, the ministry said in a statement.

The deputy commissioner of Chattogram will chair the specialist committee, while other members include Professor Monirul H Khan of Jahangirnagar University, Professor Anwarul Islam of Dhaka University, a representative of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), two representatives from the Korean EPZ, Rubaiya Ahmed from Obhoyaronno (Bangladesh Animal Welfare Foundation), and the divisional forest officer of the Chattogram South Forest Division. 

The divisional forest officer of the Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation Division, Chattogram, will serve as the member secretary of the committee.

The committee was formed based on a decision taken at a meeting held today (21 October) at the ministry's mini-conference room in the Bangladesh Secretariat. 

The meeting was attended by the environment adviser along with the president and managing director of the Korean EPZ, the chief conservator of forests, and ministry officials.