Office of Strengthening Regional Cooperation Wildlife Project (SRCWP) lies inoperative in spite of having 10 employees recruited and an office given in Sherpur a year ago, as the areas where they should run their activities were not delimited and funds were not allocated for their work.
According to SRCWP sources, an office of the project was launched last year on the second floor of Forest Department office in Sherpur.
A deputy forest officer (DFO), a ranger, a wild life officer, an accountant, three junior wildlife scout, a driver for the DFO, a peon and a night guard was recruited for the office from its inauguration.
The office was given the task of looking after the wildlife in the forest and Garo Hills in Nalitabari, Jhinaigati and Sreebordi upazilas of the district.
The office was supposed to teach the locals how to survive attacks by the wild elephants and coexist with them in an area.
But even after one year, the office does not have any activities except for rescuing animals of rare species when they are caught in the district, and taking them to safe forested area or to Bangabandhu Safari Park. Currently, two non-government organisations (NGO) are surveying the areas where they should run their operations.
Ranger Mujibul Haque from Sherpur SRCWP office said the areas where they have to work were not specified yet.
The task of finding out the areas where wild elephants attack frequently was given to two NGOs named International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and HEED Bangladesh. When they submit their report, SRCWP office will start its work properly.
Right now they do not have the manpower to operate in the field and no fund was allocated for the works assigned to them yet, added the ranger.