Why govt wants to release a male elephant in Patharia forest

Elephants once roamed freely in the hilly forests of greater Sylhet. But over the past few decades, the elephant herds in this region have almost disappeared.

Now, only three female elephants are found in the Patharia forest of Moulvibazar. Since the only male elephant was shot dead by India’s Border Security Force (BSF) in 2012, fears of elephant extinction in Patharia have grown.

So, the Department of Forest has planned to release a male elephant into the Patharia forest to increase the possibility of elephant reproduction.

In 2015, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) listed elephants as critically endangered. The following year, a survey found the existence of 267 wild elephants in Bangladesh. Most of them survive in the hilly forests of Chattogram, Cox’s Bazar, and Rangamati.

According to data from the Department Forest, 148 elephants have died in the last nine years in the country. The acquisition of forestland for communication infrastructure and development projects, illegal occupation of forest areas, and the establishment of Rohingya camps in the forests of Teknaf and Ukhiya in Cox’s Bazar have worsened the survival crisis of Asian elephants.

To release a male elephant in the Patharia forest, the forest department formed a nine-member committee on 14 August consisting of wildlife experts. The committee was assigned six tasks and was asked to submit its report within 21 days. However, the report has not yet been submitted, even though the deadline has passed.

Earlier, a team composed of wildlife experts, forest officers, and officials from the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change visited the Patharia reserve forest last May to assess the feasibility of releasing a male elephant there.

A report prepared by this team stated that the only male elephant in the forest was killed by BSF gunfire in 2012. Among the three remaining female elephants, one has become isolated due to illness and weakness.

MA Aziz of a Professor at the Department of Zoology, Jahangirnagar University, was a member of the team, He told Prothom Alo that in there were 18 elephants in the Patharia reserve forest in 1978. The only male elephant was shot dead by BSF, and now only three female elephants remain.

Noting that the Patharia elephants are transboundary—that is, they move across the Bangladesh–India border—Professor Aziz said, “So, if a male elephant is to be released here, it must be done in coordination with the relevant authorities in India.”

At a recent meeting of the Asian Elephant Specialist Group held in Delhi, a proposal to release a male elephant in the Patharia reserve forest was presented. Professor Aziz said that while Sri Lankan wildlife experts welcomed the initiative, Indian experts raised objections.

According to forest department records, the Patharia reserve forest lies adjacent to India’s Assam state. Three decades ago, a herd of elephants from the forests of Assam used to regularly travel into the Patharia forest. Later elephant movements decreased, when barbed-wire fencing was erected along the Indian border.

Sohel Shyam, founder of the Moulvibazar-based wildlife conservation organisation Stand for Our Endangered Wildlife, told Prothom Alo that this is a positive initiative to prevent elephant extinction.

However, it is necessary to consider what impact releasing a male elephant will have, how the female elephants will react to him, and whether there are any global precedents for such introductions, he added.

Sohel further said that if these protocols are not properly followed, other types of problems may arise. If the initiative succeeds, there must also be a plan for how the elephants will be conserved afterward—ensuring adequate food in the forest, addressing human–elephant conflict in several districts, and considering all these aspects before moving forward.

If everything goes as planned, the Forest Department intends to bring a male elephant from one of the country’s two safari parks and release it into the Patharia forest.

Md Shanawllah Patwary, Conservator of Forests for the Wildlife and Nature Conservation Region, told Prothom Alo that the three elephants have not been seen in the Patharia forest for the past four months, and they continue to move back and forth between Bangladesh and India.

Discussions have already been held with local residents, he said adding the three elephants are essentially semi-domesticated—they were released into the wild after their owner’s death. There is a plan to release a male elephant from a safari park here. However, the results of this move will need to be monitored over a long period.

According to IUCN, elephants are classified as critically endangered in Bangladesh, while in India they are listed as endangered, meaning that the situation and population are relatively better in India. India currently has 20,000 to 25,000 elephants, while Bangladesh has only 267.

At the beginning of the 20th century, more than 100,000 Asian elephants roamed across vast regions of Asia—from the Persian Gulf to India and China. But over the past three generations, their numbers have fallen by at least 50 per cent.

Today, much of the world’s human population lives within or near elephant habitats. Habitat destruction and fragmentation, poaching, and the illegal trade of wild elephants—all these factors have made the survival of elephants increasingly difficult.