Home ›› 11 Oct 2021 ›› Nation
Frequent incidents of human-elephant conflict have become a matter of concern among the wildlife conservationists and residents of Rangamati. As a result of such interactions, six elephants and 20 people lost their lives in the last eight years alone.
Four of these elephants died of electrocution, and another died of gunshot in the last five years. Electric fences built by local residents around their property are electrocuting the wildlife in the region.
There are a multitude of factors behind the rising human-elephant conflict, including deforestation, destruction of natural forests, indiscriminate hunting of wild animals, increasing population density, construction of roads and railways, new settlements on agricultural land, and the construction of brickfields to name a few.
Such activities – though essential components of the development spree – are disrupting the natural movement of elephants along their routes and corridors and in Rangamati, leading to confrontations, said experts from the district Forest Department.
Such encounters have caused the deaths of a number of elephants, and consequently, Asian Elephants – a heritage of Chattogram – are gradually going extinct. On the other hand, elephant herds, coming down from hills in search of food, have killed people and damaged crops.
Around 20 people from different areas of the district have died because of these conflicts in the last eight years, according to the Rangamati district administration office. Of these deaths, nine people were killed in Kaptai Upazila in the last three years alone, officials said.
Some short-term plans were taken to address the issue, but experts said long-term strategies are essential to resolve such issues.
The local forest department told The Business Post that there are only two ways to mitigate the current crisis – by raising awareness among locals, and a safe elephant corridor protected by solar fencing.
Officials concerned said they are planning to build an eight-kilometer-long solar fence route along the Kaptai Upazila, the first in the country, which is awaiting approval from the government.
However, these site-specific short-term prevention strategies can lead to a transfer of conflict risk from one area to the other, while the habitation and food scarcity crisis remain the same for the elephants, local wildlife conservationists said.
Meanwhile, the forest department has no statistics on the number of elephants living in the region, making it difficult to assess an updated number and condition of the wild animals in the area, resulting in the indiscriminate killing of elephants for safety or poaching, they added.
The last known statistics, conducted by researchers from the Zoology Department of Jahangirnagar University in 2015, says there are 57 Asian elephants in the forests of Kaptai Upazila.
However, locals said that the number of elephants currently living in the forest is more than 60.
Addressing the issue, Chief Conservator of the Forest Department (Rangamati Circle) Mohammad Subedar Islam said, “We are planning to launch different awareness programmes for the locals regarding the issue.
“We are also holding discussions with the government to install a solar fence around the area to mitigate human-elephant conflicts. If we cannot ensure safe habitation and adequate food to the wild animals that are our national treasure, we cannot expect the situation to improve.”
Islam added, “We must plan accordingly to ensure the co-existence of humans and elephants and consider long-term strategies.”
Echoing the same, Divisional Forest Officer of the Forest Department (South) of Chattogram Hill Tracts (CHT) Rafiquzzaman Shah said they have taken up several campaigns to raise awareness among the local populace.
“We are conducting workshops and training programmes to raise awareness. We had installed signboards along with the elephant commuting corridors and made banana orchards to feed the elephants so that they do not come into residential areas in search of food.”
