Corridors for coexistence

Villagers of Nakugaon were in a constant state of panic after they had learnt that a herd of 30 wild elephants were foraging in the vicinity near the Bangladesh-India border in Sherpur.

It was around noon on 19 March – two days after hearing about the elephant herd – that their fear turned into reality. The herd charged in near the border pillar 1114 and trampled on a local youth named Hazrat, 24, who unfortunately was mentally challenged.

Villagers rushed to the spot and chased the elephants into the forest along the border. The young man survived but sustained multiple injuries including a broken right thigh.

Housewife Julekha Begum, who was among the chasers, said the villagers, frightened of possible attacks, would spend the following nights sleepless.

"Elephants stamp on our crops and sometimes damage our houses. They kill people. Do our lives and crops have no value?" she asked.

But it also begs the question whether these gentle giants are to blame for this predicament, or is it us humans inviting trouble by invading their habitat.

The Department of Forest compensates the victims of elephant attacks. But the compensation process takes months to be completed and the villagers are not happy with the compensation amount.

Following a series of elephant casualties in the last three months, the department has been preventing villagers from setting up electric fences. These, however, made the Nakugaon villagers upset.

Divisional Forest Officer Md Shahin Kabir (wildlife management and nature conservation division, Sherpur) said no one should be given licence to kill elephants – which are precious assets of nature.

"Villagers have occupied elephant corridors. The animals forage on crop fields as their habitats are disappearing. Why should they die?" the forest officer said.

Every year, human-elephant conflicts take toll around the border areas in Sherpur and Cox's Bazar where trans-boundary migration of elephants is common.

According to IUCN data, some 70-80 elephants continue to move back and forth across the Sherpur border area.

Photo: MumitM

To mitigate human-elephant conflicts, the Forest Department formed several Elephant Response Teams (ERT) across the greater Mymensingh and Chattogram regions. The teams were formed under a World Bank-funded Strengthening Regional Cooperation for Wildlife Protection project.

Mymensingh Divisional Forest Officer AKM Ruhul Amin said at least 23 ERTs were formed in the Mymensingh region that covers Sherpur as well.

But when the young man was injured at Nakugaon village on 19 March, no ERT members were present, said Hassan Ali, who rescued Hazrat and rushed him to the local health complex.

Divisional Forest Officer Ruhul Amin said 12 out of 23 ERTs are currently active, but members of these teams have not received allowance since the World Bank project expired on 31 December 2016. The payment delay seems to have demotivated them.

Hassan was also a victim as elephants damaged crops on 55 decimals of his land recently. He wrote to the Forest Department, seeking Tk44,000 as compensation.

"We demand quick release of the compensation money. We will be happy if the elephants are relocated to another place," Hassan said.

His demand for elephants' relocation is, however, irrational as wild animals choose their own habitats, said some forest officials.

Given an intensified human-elephant conflict, the Forest Department has recently identified 12 elephant corridors across Cox's Bazar and are drafting a plan to restore the passages in the wake of a public interest litigation at the High Court seeking orders for restoration of the 12 corridors.

But the Mymensingh division has yet to identify any specific corridors there.

"Wild elephants trespass the Bangladesh-India border along Sherpur through several points. There are no specific corridors actually," Divisional Forest Officer Ruhul Amin said.

Following the litigation, filed by Dhaka residents Adnan Azad, Farzana Yasmin and Khan Fatim Hasan, the corridors were ordered to be gazetted with an official notification, prompting the Department of Forest Conservation to identify the corridors.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has surveyed and identified these corridors for elephant movement in the Cox's Bazar North and South Forest Department areas and Chattogram South Forest Department area. However, uncertainty looms over implementation of these corridors due to man-made constructions there.

"Elephants need a big space. Elephants do not move to another area to eat or breed. If the elephant corridors are not opened, the wild elephants will become extinct one day," elephant researcher Monirul Hasan Khan told The Business Standard.

"Now we have to decide, what do we want? If you want to protect the wild elephants, you must open the corridors. The constructions must be removed. There is no alternative," added Monirul, who is a zoology professor at Jahangirnagar University.

According to the IUCN field level survey, the main threats to the conservation of Ukhia-Ghumdhum corridor include the development of Cox's Bazar-Teknaf highway, Rohingya camp, proposed Dohazari-Ghumdhum railway line, Ukhia TV station, rubber plantation, crocodile farm, arable land, and grazing fields.

The proposed Dohazari-Ghumdhum railway line is also a major obstacle for three other corridors – two under the Cox's Bazar forest department and the other in Chattogram.

Conservation of the corridors in Khuntakhali-Medhakassapia, Fashiakhali-Chairakhali and Chunati-Satgar are hindered by the Chattogram-Cox's Bazar highway, locality, crop fields, mosques, madrasas and farms.

Elephants also use the Tulabagan-Penerchara corridor to move from the Himchhari forest reserve area to Rajarful and Panerchhara ranges. Cox's Bazar-Teknaf Highway, Army Camp, social forestry, crop fields and pasture land are major obstacles to the preservation of this corridor.

Main Challenges for the preservation of Naikhonchari-Rajarkul corridor are Ramu-Maricha road, cantonment, BGB camp, coconut garden, botanical garden, human settlement, crop field and grazing land.

Photo: MumitM

Through the Bhomariaghona-Rajghat and Tulatuli-Idgar corridors elephants move from Eidgaon protected forest to Fulchhari protected forest and the main obstacles in preserving the two corridors are Eidgaon road, shelter, locality and crop fields.

The Lama road, locality, crop fields and pasture lands are obstacles for the Fashiakhali-Manikpur corridor of the Cox's Bazar north forest area covering the Yangcha hills.

Elephants travel from Dohazari forest to Padua, Lalutia and Barduara through the Lalutia-Barduara corridor in the Chittagong north forest area. The main challenges to preserve the corridor are Keranirhat-Bandarban highway, cantonment, BGB camp, bombing zone, locality, crop field and grazing lands. Besides, the main challenges in conserving the Sukhbilash-Kodala and Narischa-Kodala corridors are development of roads, localities, crop fields and pastures.

Rafiqul Islam Chowdhury, Chattogram Divisional Forest Officer at the Department of Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation, told The Business Standard that initiatives have been taken to conserve these 12 corridors.

"A committee has already been formed and they are working on identifying the areas of these corridors," he said.

Shrinking corridors leading to more casualties

With diminishing habitat area, elephant-human confrontation is increasing and both people and elephants are dying.

According to the Department of Wildlife Management and Natural Conservation, there were 99 elephant attacks in Chattogram from January 2019 to 2021. Some 24 people died in 24 of these incidents. Besides, 136 others were affected.

In five months from September 2017 to February 2018, after the closure of Ukhia-Ghumdhum corridor with the establishment of Rohingya camps, at least 13 people were killed in elephant attacks in the camp area.

From 2016 to 2018 there were a total of 55 cases of elephant attacks killing 18 people and injuring 61 others.

On the other hand, from 2019 to 2021 at least 45 elephants have died in the hilly areas of south-eastern Chattogram and in the forests of Cox's Bazar.

Raqibul Alam, country representative of IUCN told The Business Standard that the main problem now is various establishments including privately owned land.

"Elephant conflicts are on the rise in new places as their movement along corridors is disrupted," he said, adding, "We need to understand that they are coming in search of food."

We must restore their corridors, he stressed.