About 40 elephants are trapped in the Inani sanctuary of Cox’s Bazar. Enraged elephants are attacking the locality in groups due to the closure of the elephant movement route. In Kutupalong village of Ukhia, the movement of people through the narrow road to the Rohingya camp is a risk. An elephant entered there. In 2018, an elephant from Myanmar entered the locality. Two Rohingyas were killed in that two-hour rush. Such incidents started happening after the influx of Rohingyas on August 25, 2017. In the first six months, 12 Rohingyas died in elephant attacks. Now the Rohingyas and the villagers have put up a guard together to stop the elephants. 99 watch towers have been installed from Ukhia to Teknaf. Rohingyas and villagers take turns guarding. High power torches and searchlights in their hands. He warns his people when he sees the movement of elephants. Basically, it is believed that the reason for the sudden rise of elephants is due to the blocking of the elephant’s movement path. Once there were sanctuaries from Myanmar through Gundum to Ukhia, Inani, Teknaf, Sangu, Matamuhuri. A herd of elephants roamed there without interruption. The entire area was under the forest department. Now Rohingya camps, border roads, barbed wire fences of Myanmar have been built in place of that forest. Due to these reasons, the movement of elephants has been blocked. Experts are worried about the future of the approximately 40 elephants that are stuck. Elephants may become extinct if their passage is not opened. This is because more elephants are needed for breeding. But they are not getting that opportunity. 40 elephants are meeting among themselves. Which is not good for elephant health. 6000 sq km to 12000 sq km range area is required for elephant food collection. In reality, there is a possibility of gradually disappearing. IUCN officer working in Ukhia Rohingya camp Md. Sultan Ahmed said, we started trying to eliminate the human-elephant conflict with the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR in 2018. First we tried to estimate the number of elephants. Let’s try to find out how many elephants there are from Inani to Teknaf. There are about 40 elephants. In 2016, the IUCN Elephant Population Report came out. Which was completed a few days before the Rohingyas entered. Then the elephant population was reviewed from Inani to Teknaf, Sangu, Matamuhuri. It can be seen that the total number of elephants in Bangladesh is 268. Among them, there are 65 in the south of Cox’s Bazar. He also said that we start working in conflict situations between elephants and humans. The Rohingya camp is a densely populated area. Just as elephants are dangerous here, humans are also dangerous to be caught by elephants. There are places in the Rohingya camp where people cannot walk freely. If elephants enter there, people may die. The IUCN official said, let’s find out where the elephants live. We build elephant monitoring watch towers with funding from UNHCR. 99 watch towers have been erected till Teknaf. Community people keep watch at night. However, the Rohingya guarded the camp area. He said that no Rohingya died in elephant attacks after taking these steps. We have protected the community. Earlier, when elephants came, people used to show fear to elephants in different ways. Now we have trained how to gently drive the elephant back to the forest. When a tiger gets angry, it kills a man. When elephants get angry, they kill people and destroy houses and crops. Elephants are very gentle. There is no problem if you chase politely. Sultan Ahmed said, according to the roster, the people of the community will stay awake in the tower at night. He will look around all the time with a searchlight to see if the elephant comes or not. Elephants make sounds when they see an obstacle. Even if the elephant moves, it will break something around. It’s his behavior. He already has a word. It is sent to the community. Corridor has been camped. A ‘border road’ has been constructed on the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar. Myanmar has built barbed wire fences. The IUCN official thinks that it is necessary to discuss the matter with Bangladesh with Myanmar. The Rohingya camp in Kutupalong village of Ukhia Upazila is the largest refugee camp in the world. There are a total of 33 Rohingya camps in Kutupalong village, which are surrounded by barbed wire fences.
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