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Elephants vs people

Inam Ahmed
Kurkuttipara offers a classic case of human-animal conflict.
In this remote place beyond Barkal of Rangamati, villagers cannot hate anything more than the herd of nine elephants.
Even the mind boggling beauty of the place, surrounded by rippling
crystal blue waters of Kaptai Lake, could not hide the deep-seated anger and enmity of the conflicting parties.
It highlights how a lack of initiative by the forest department can lead the beautiful animals to a certain death. It also makes a new case for a separate wildlife department that can think of
SEE PAGE 6 COL 4 FROM PAGE 1 the wellbeing of animals and act fast.
As our boat stopped at Shuvolong, an hour’s boat trip from Rangamati, it did not take us long to hear about the marauding elephants.
Everybody talked about how these elephants had invaded pineapple plantations and shattered the dreams of many. Or how they knocked down homes and killed people.
“There's a huge male in the pack,” one man said with all the venoms in his voice. “It is the wickedest of the lot. A real vermin. It can move fast like a snake. It is amazing how fast it can just turn around and charge.”
“This beast must be killed," another man said. “You cannot scare them away by lighting a fire or by blasting firecrackers. Last week, I shot the big one in the hip with my gun. The bullet must have entered six inches into its flesh. That made it run away.”
We took directions from the villagers where the elephants were grazing now and sailed off again.
As we passed Barkal, the landscape unfolded in breathless beauty. The lake's water turned into crystal green, forming small lagoons around the green hills. One could stand on top of the hills and have a full view of these sprawling lagoons of all shapes.
The hills have coverings of shegun, jackfruit and other trees. They look like part of a natural forest.
But many hills have been denuded completely. Pineapple plantations have replaced the trees. Signs of hill erosion were clear. And the Kaptai Lake is filling up with silts carried down with rains.
Our binoculars searched every inch of the hills. Elephants have excellent camouflaging ability. You may not notice it even from 20 feet.
About an hour's search around the hills proved fruitful as we caught a glimpse of that certain grey of an elephant.
Silendy we rounded the bend of the hill and surprised the herd. A female elephant and two cubs were near the edge of the lake. The mother was actually in knee-deep water. It was tearing up clumps of long grasses growing along the bank, shaking them violently to get rid of the
mud and chomping away.
Suddenly the elephants went very still to find us just 30 feet away from them. They cocked their huge ears to frighten us.
The big males started trumpeting and thundered through the forest. The bigger of the males was visibly limping. It had received the bullet in its hip.
The cubs followed them. Only the female stood guard, just like a real leader, until the whole pack disappeared.
It was evident that the injured male would not survive long. The bullet wound would develop gangrene.
But the villagers would not feel sorry for its death. In fact this June, they had killed another of the pack.
This elephant was grazing in water beside a hill. So the villagers launched their huge boat in full speed towards the animal and pinned it down. They used axes and machetes to hack the beast to death.
Last year, three more elephants were killed, villagers said. And they are willing to kill more.
For these animals, options are limited. They used to graze in Maini, about 10km from this place.
But food became scarce as humans encroached on the elephant range. Desperate for food — each elephant needs about 130kg of food a day -- they had swum across the Kaptai Lake and landed in Kurkuttipara.
But here too, the vegetation is vanishing fast with pineapple plantation. The animals are going hungry and invadingtheplantations.
As things go, it might take three to four years for this whole pack of elephants to be wiped out. The forest department has not taken any move to relocate them, orto protect them.
Nor is there any compensation for the damage the animals do to crops.
Laily Begum, a 30-year-old woman, was sitting beside a wrecked hut on the island.
"The elephants came last night and did this,” she said. “I saved myself by jumping onto my boat and pushing it away.”
As the battle line is drawn at Kurkuttipara between the humans and animals, the outcome is apparent unless something is done immediately.