ASIAN ELEPHNAT CONSERVATION CONFERENCE IN BANGLADESH

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Vol. 5 Num 555 Sun. December 18, 2005 Front Page

 

 

*Global experts gather in Ctg to help save elephants*

Staff Correspondent, Ctg

 

Wildlife experts and officials from home and abroad meet at an international

conference beginning in the port city tomorrow aimed at building necessary

ecosystem management and institutional capacity to protect the largest and

globally endangered animal elephant.

 

The conference titled 'International Conference on Conservation of Asian

Elephant' is expected to provide necessary information and direction for

developing elephant conservation management policy and programmes, sources

said.

 

The two-day meet would also provide guidelines for a long-term master plan

for a Mike-Site and critical conservation areas in the country with emphasis

on human welfare and poverty alleviation side by side with protecting the

elephants.

 

Two international organisations -- Convention on International Trade in

Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites), and Monitoring Illegal

Killing of Elephants (Mike) are jointly organising the conference to be held

at a city hotel. Some 75 delegates will attend it.

 

The elephant population in Bangladesh is declining fast due to loss of their

habitat and biotic pressure resulting from deforestation, forest department

officials said.

 

Unplanned conversion of forestland into farm land and infrastructure and

housing development along 'migration routes' are also causing increased

'human-elephant conflicts' that leave 10 to 15 people and five to eight

elephants killed in Bangladesh annually, they mentioned.

 

" Bangladesh now has some 178 resident, 100 non-resident and 94 captive

elephants " , one official said.

 

A survey carried out in 2003 (by IUCN) said the wild elephant population in

Bangladesh varies from 280 to 300.

 

Sources said there are 13 'range states' of Asian elephants including those

in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, China, Indonesia,

Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. But many of the Asian

countries are yet to develop conservation management plan for the elephants

due to lack of resources and technical knowhow.

 

Meanwhile, man-elephant conflicts in Indo-Bangladesh border areas have now

become a serious problem.

 

In the present crop harvesting season, a group of some 100 elephants from

the Indian state of Meghalaya is migrating to Bangladesh and damaging crops

and property and also causing loss of lives in Mymensingh, Sherpur and

Netrakona districts, forest officials said.

 

Besides, such conflicts are also leaving some people dead in different

forest areas of Banshkhali, Lohagara, Satkania and Rangunia in Chittagong,

in Cox's Bazar and in the hill districts of Bandarban and Rangamati.

 

" In many cases poor locals fall victims to elephant attacks while collecting

fire-wood or fishing in the remote forest areas, " said Divisional Forest

Officer Dr Tapan Kumar Dey of Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation

Division in Chittagong.

 

Many also fall victim to elephant stampedes while erecting houses on their

migration routes clearing off forests and destroying their habitats, causing

fodder crisis for the elephants, he told this correspondent yesterday.

 

Some low-cost fencing, like those in India, could have put a check on the

menace, he thought.

 

Secretary for Environment and Forest Jafar Ahmed Chowdhury will inaugurate

the conference.

 

RB Lal, inspector general of forests (wildlife), India, Mohammad Osman

Ghani, chief conservator of forests, Bangladesh, and Nigel Hunter, director,

Cites /Mike programme, would be among those attending the conference.