The Forest Department has successfully rescued 17-year-old Niharkoli, the elephant that was seen in a video being brutally tortured and shackled in Comilla’s Daudkandi.
The rescue operation was carried out by forest officials from Dhaka Safari Park in cooperation with various wildlife rights organizations in Narayanganj's Kanchan area.
The elephant was later released at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Safari Park in Gazipur.
The mahout, named Monirul Islam, responsible for the abuse has been detained.
The rescue operation was concluded at 3:30pm on Saturday when the elephant was released at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Safari Park in Gazipur.
Prior to this, at 11am, the elephant was rescued from a catkin field in Gausia, Rupganj, Narayanganj.
The rescue was carried out by the Forest Department's Wildlife Crime Control Unit, the Wildlife and Nature Conservation Division's Safari Park staff, and animal rights activists, including Rakibul Haque Emil from People for Animal Welfare Foundation.
The video of the elephant being brutally beaten in Daudkandi, Comilla, which went viral on social media on Tuesday, sparked outrage among citizens and animal lovers across the country.
As the incident came to her notice, Syeda Rizwana Hasan, adviser for the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, gave a directive to rescue the elephant immediately.
Inspector Ashim Malik of the Forest Department’s Wildlife Crime Control Unit told Dhaka Tribune that the elephant was cleaned and quarantined after being brought to the safari park, and its physical condition was found to be stable.
He also mentioned that four people, including the mahout, were detained in connection with the case.
The three minors were handed over to their relatives.
The incident
Following the viral video, the People for Animal Welfare (PAW) Foundation reported the matter to Syeda Rizwana Hasan, adviser to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
Animal rights activists also lodged a direct complaint with the Forest Department, prompting an immediate rescue operation.
Although the specific elephant shown in the video was not initially located, another distressed elephant was rescued by local Forest Department staff.
Subsequently, efforts to find the exact elephant depicted in the video were intensified by the Forest Department and animal welfare activists, who questioned the mahout and tracked down the victim's location.
How was Niharkoli rescued?
Rakibul Haque Emil, Founder Chairman of People for Animal Welfare Foundation, described that after the video was published, the search led to discovering the elephant in Gausia, Rupganj, Narayanganj, where it was being used for extortion.
Upon receiving this information, the Forest Department's Wildlife Crime Control Unit and Safari Park staff launched another search and successfully found the elephant.
Realizing the situation, the mahout fled through remote villages, fields, and wetlands around Rupganj and Kanchan until midnight. The rescue operation continued through the night with the help of local villagers and animal rights activists, including Rakibul.
The presence of the elephant was eventually detected at dawn through tracks left in the soft ground.
By 11am, the elephant was located in a Catkin, calmly eating leaves under a tree.
Rakibul Haque Emil congratulated everyone involved in giving Niharkoli a new life and emphasized that rescuing elephants in captivity and providing them with a better life is the foundation's primary goal.