Bangladesh Nature Conservation Alliance (BNCA), a newly floated united platform of 33 environmental organisations, has expressed concern over the continuous killing of wild elephants in the country.
The BNCA has announced that they would launch a ‘shadow investigation’ into the recent incidents of elephant killing. The decision was taken at a meeting of the alliance held at Stamford University in the capital recently. Prof Dr Ahmad Kamruzzaman Majumder, convener of the alliance and joint secretary of Bangladesh Paribesh Andolan (BAPA), presided over meeting, while Muhammad Anowarul Hoque, secretary general of Save Our Sea, and Kefayet Shakil, member of the BNCA’s convening committee, attended the meeting, among others.
The attendees of the meeting contracted with Chief Forest Conservator Md Amir Hossain Chowdhury and expressed their concern over elephant killing, including the latest incident that took place at Banshkhali in Chattogram on December 1. The BNCA leaders called upon the Chief Forest Conservator to take initiative in stopping killing of wildlife animals. They also told him that the BNCA would carry out a ‘shadow investigation’ into the recent incidents of killing of eight elephants in different parts of the country.
In response, Amir Hossain Chowdhury said that most of the elephants were killed in electrocution. There are illegal electricity connection in forests. He informed that some cases were filed against officials of the power department for non-cooperation in this regard. The Chief Forest Conservator further said that they would investigate the matter whether there was any conspiracy behind the killing of eight elephants in a few days. He sought help from the environmental organisations in this regard.
The BNCA leaders, however, requested the forest officials to take preventive measures to stop rising electrocution deaths of elephants.
Prof Ahmad Kamruzzaman Majumder, who is also chairman of Environmental Science Department of Stamford University, said that they decided that they will visit the spots where wild elephants were killed and investigate the matter who are responsible for the killing of elephants.
He said that Amir Hossain Chowdhury responded to the matter positively. The Chief Forest Conservator, however, claimed that that they are cordial and sincere over stopping killing of elephants. Highlighting the activities of the Forest Department in stopping the killing of wildlife animals, he said that their monitoring system is not being effective properly due to the manpower crisis. The BNCA leaders called upon the Forest Department to be more sincere on making wildlife safe from such offensive activities. The BNCA leaders also decided to send letters to Environment, Forest and Climate Change ministry and the parliamentary standing committee on the ministry soon, showing their no-confidence to the forest department. They also decided to conduct awareness programme in different educational institutions in the country.
