August 12 is World Elephant Day, a day dedicated to the preservation and protection of our elephants. It is a day to honor the majestic creature that is the elephant, and to spread awareness about the critical threats they are facing existentially, and to support realistic solutions that can help ensure their survival.
Since 2012, World Elephant Day has acted as an international initiative co-founded by the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation and Patrica Sims. They are a charitable organization that helps to spread awareness about the conservation of elephants around the world. To celebrate the event, wildlife SOS has also announced the “ToeGrey” campaign, which is set to solve the chronic foot problems seen in India’s captive elephants.
Elephants promote healthy ecosystems and encourage biodiversity and the day is marked to create awareness so that their illegal hunting and poaching can be banned.
The MIKE (Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants) program was established to conserve elephants. It was founded by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Elephants and humans have always existed side by side, the Asian elephant has lived alongside humans for over 4,000 years and enjoys great respect and is associated with a variety of cultural and spiritual customs. For example, in Thailand, the elephant is a national icon with a national holiday dedicated entirely to them and they can even receive a royal title from the king.
Once, wild elephants were abundant throughout the area of our modern Bangladesh. Unfortunately, they are listed as “critically endangered” now and are one of the most threatened wild populations. Above all, up to 30% of this population is transient and migrating over the neighbouring borders of Myanmar and India. The major causes behind this decline in population are illegal hunting, poaching, and killing for ivory.
Last year, 34 elephants were killed in Bangladesh for criminal purposes. A shadow investigation was conducted by Bangladesh Nature Conservation Alliance (BNCA), a united platform of 33 environmental organizations. The convener of the BNCA read the written statement at the press conference expressing deep concern over elephant-killing in our country.
They made 11-point recommendations to protect our elephants from extinction. According to the shadow investigation team, only 16 people were involved in the protection of 13,075 acres of forestland and has found evidence of the involvement of illegal occupants in the elephant killing.
The recommendations are:
1) to protect forest, forestland, and wild animals the offenders need to be fined heavily;
2) having law enforcement involved in bringing the offenders to book;
3) rescuing forestland from illegal grabbers;
4) to protect forest and forest animals, all the local administrative bodies are to be united;
5) the Forest Department should give primary focus on protecting forests above everything else;
6) the Forest Department should keep an annual budget to protect forest animals;
7) spreading awareness about protecting wild animals should be ramped up;
8) stop building bridges and routing electrical wires through reserve forests and elephant corridors and cut off any previously permitted electrical wires and bridges;
9) elephant killing should not be a bailable offense;
10) the Forest Department needs to equip foresters with all the facilities required and an Elephant Rescue Team needs to be formed with paid salaries; and
11) the reserve forest cannot be given to any government, non-government or any person as a lease.
At present, illegal occupation of forestland across the country has become a serious threat to elephants and wildlife and Bangladesh’s elephant population is arguably the most threatened in all of Asia. We can save our elephants by enforcing stronger local and international protection policies and legislation for wild elephants against poaching and the illegal trade of ivory.
The BNCA convener said after the investigation that the findings clearly showed that the incident happened because of a lack of capacity to protect elephants by the Forest Department and as the Elephant Response Team (ERT) couldn’t respond timely as they do not have any effective system. Despite frequent killings, the Forest Department has not been able to bring any offenders to book since the government formulated the Wildlife Conservation Act 2012.
So, we have to enforce stronger policies and legislation to protect our elephants and wildlife as humans and elephants share many characteristics and they are possibly more like us than any other animal. As humans, we have to work together to prevent poaching and the trafficking of ivory, and establish protected natural sanctuaries in which elephants and other wildlife can thrive while promoting better management of their natural habitats.
Educating people on the vital role of the elephant in our ecosystems is also necessary in the wider awareness scheme. We should be also concerned about improving the way elephants in captivity are treated. Nevertheless, if required, reintroducing captive elephants into the wildlife reserves to allow a natural replacement of endangered populations can also be taken to balance the ecosystem.
Professor Dr Ahmad Kamruzzaman Majumder is Dean, Faculty of Science, and Chairman, Dept of Environmental Science, Stamford University Bangladesh.
