& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

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
FROM PAGE 16
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.