Home ›› 20 Nov 2021 ›› Nation
The indiscriminate killing of Asian elephants along the Sherpur border has been seeing an increase in recent times, making it the biggest existential threat for the largest living land mammal in Asia.
On Friday morning, a wild Asian elephant calf was found dead near the Panihata border of Nalitabari upazila of the district, confirmed the Forest Department (FD) officials of the district. Meanwhile, they also filed a case against four people on November 11 over killing an endangered Asian elephant by electrocution.
This is the second carcass of a two-year-old wild elephant that has been recovered from the area in the past 10 days, confirmed Nalitabari Upazila Nirbahi Officer Helena Parvin and Modhutila range officer Md Abdul Karim of FD.
Forest official Md Shah Alam said they recovered the male elephant calf's carcass early on Friday after being informed by locals.
Meanwhile, the president of Bird Conservation Society of Sherpur, Sujoy Malakar, said the locals were trying to bury the elephant calf.
On November 11, the forest department of Sreebordi upazila for the first time in the district filed a case against four farmers for killing an endangered Asian elephant by electrocution on November 9.
The elephant had died while searching for food after being trapped in electrified wires installed by local farmers around their farms at Sonajhuri Hillock in the upazila.
Forest official Robiul Islam said the Forest Department actually owned the lands, and the farmers were cultivating there illegally. He said due to increasing farming activities occupying forest lands, wild elephants started coming into the locality.
He said the case was filed for violating schedule-1 of the Wildlife (Conservation and Security) Act, 2012 under section 36 of the act.
The court has summoned the four accused and set December 12 to hear the case, said range officer Robiul Islam.
Trainer of the elephant response team in the district, Adnan Asif, said the large area under Garo Hill tracts in Sherpur has been reduced to a small portion in the past 20 to 30 years.
Due to increasing human invaders in the hill area, the number of wildlife has decreased and the remaining few elephants are facing a food crisis, he said.
According to forest officials, in the last two decades, some 30 wild Asian elephants have died in the hilly area of Sherpur district.
Of them many died by gunshots, electrocution and poisoning, while some died due to accidents, ageing and sickness, said the officials.
