- Around 270 Asian elephants live in Bangladesh, where they are regionally critically endangered. Conflict between humans and elephants has been a significant cause for death in both humans and elephants.
- Unplanned infrastructure development in elephant habitats in the country’s southeastern zone and transboundary border fencing in the northeast are the two critical factors behind such conflicts.
- Experts suggest that the government take suitable measures, such as involving local communities in the elephant conservation process to protect resident elephant and implementing the protocol signed with neighboring India for managing conflicts with non-resident elephants.
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.”
Banner image: Locals pass wild elephants on a farmland in northeastern Bangladesh. Image by Mohammed Mostafa Feeroz.
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