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NEWS - Feature-Elephants under Sieg
- Subject: NEWS - Feature-Elephants under Sieg
- From: BurmaJapan@xxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 12:06:00
Feature-Elephants under Siege in Bangladesh
Reuters
13-JAN-98
By Shehab Ahmed Nafa
DHAKA, Bangladesh (Reuters) -
Bangladeshis got a rare glimpse of
the country's fast-disappearing wild
Asian elephant last month but they
did not like what they saw.
A newspaper carried photos of one of
the endangered animals, shot to
death and awash in blood after its
tusks and toenails had been ripped
out by poachers. Conservationists
and other readers were outraged.
For many, the most shocking aspect
of the death was that it occurred in
the Eidgah wildlife sanctuary in
southeastern Bangladesh, one of the
country's few remaining elephant
refuges. Pressure from
conservationists and the public to
punish those responsible moved
embarrassed wildlife authorities to
order an investigation.
The case has thrown a harsh
spotlight on the precarious state of
Bangladesh's elephant population.
Wildlife activists say the number of
elephants, protected under the 1974
Wildlife Preservation Act, has
dwindled to only about 450, most of
which survive in the rugged
southeastern Chittagong Hill Tracts.
The tracts, a southern extension of
the Himalayas, once offered the
perfect habitat, but the herds are
under growing pressure from human
encroachment on their feeding
grounds and have been pushed to
the brink of extinction by poachers.
They have been declared
endangered throughout Asia and are
protected by the Convention on Trade
in Endangered Species (CITES),
which prohibits trading in ivory. In
Bangladesh, violators face two years'
jail and a fine.
ASIAN ELEPHANTS FACE
EXTINCTION ``Asian elephants are
clearly facing extinction due to
human encroachment in their habitat
and lax security in the wildlife
reserves,'' said Rashiduzzaman
Ahmed, the International Union for
Conservation of Nature's
representative in Bangladesh.
``Unless steps are taken soon to
overcome the shortcomings, the
elephants will become extinct in
Bangladesh in the next five to six
years. Besides falling to poachers'
guns, many will migrate to
neighboring countries,'' he said.
Many of Bangladesh's wild elephants
are thought to be crossing into
neighboring Myanmar (formerly
Burma), which has the largest
population of Asian elephants as a
result of a comparatively undisturbed
habitat, said Zakir Hossain, IUCN
regional chief for South and
Southeast Asia.
Clearing of forests to make way for
palm oil and rubber plantations has
taken its toll on the traditional
foraging grounds in southeastern
Bangladesh. Large groves of
bamboo, one of the elephants'
favorite foods, were wiped out to
provide materials for the construction
of shelters for some 250,000 Muslim
refugees who arrived from Myanmar
in 1992.
Most of the refugees have since
returned to Myanmar but the
now-barren hills no longer provide
enough food for the elephants,
conservationists say.
Wildlife biologist Anisuzzaman Khan,
executive director of Nature
Conservation Movement (NACOM), a
non-government organization, said
human encroachment had led to
increasingly frequent run-ins between
elephants and people. With the
destruction of their staples -- bamboo
shoots and banana trees -- elephants
are often forced to prey on other
crops.
ELEPHANTS STRIKE BACK At least
10 people died in 1997 and many
others were injured when wild
elephants rampaged through villages,
pulling down houses and eating or
trampling down crops.
``Despite petitions by local residents
to keep the Chunoti wildlife park (in
southeastern Bangladesh) and the
last remaining patches of green
forest intact so that elephants remain
happy within their homes, nothing
has been done so far,'' Khan said. If
their natural habitat were given better
protection, he added, the elephants
would have no need to venture out
and clash with farmers.
The Forest Department is conducting
a study to determine ways to better
conserve these elephant habitats.
Spurred by the uproar over the
poaching case, both NACOM and
Bangladesh's non-governmental
National Bio-Diversity Group have
offered to lend expertise and
manpower to the effort.
As for the poachers responsible for
the slaughtered elephant shown in
the newspaper, Abdul Wahab
Akonda, a wildlife conservation
officer, said authorities were on their
trail. ``We are taking action,'' he said,
but he added even if the culprits are
caught a lack of properly trained
conservation personnel will leave
Bangladesh's remaining herds at the
mercy of poachers.
Copyright 1998