Subject: Chittagong Hills- Elephants under seige Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit X-To: nathistory-india@lists.princeton.edu X-Mailer: AOL 3.0 16-bit for Windows sub 63 X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN Status: RO FWD Attached- Article about pressure on surviving elephant population in Chittagong Hill Tracts and the triangular region bordering Bangladesh (Chittangong Hill Tracts), Myanmar (Chin Hills) and Mizoram (Mizo Hills) in NE India. ______________________________________ BANGLADESH- ELEPHANTS UNDER SEIGE DHAKA, (Reuters) - Bangladeshis got a rare glimpse of the country's fast- disappearing wild Asian elephant last month. They didn't like what they saw. A newspaper carried photos of one of the endangered animals, shot dead and awash in blood after its tusks and toenails had been ripped out by poachers. Conservationists and other readers were outraged. But for many, the most shocking aspect of the elephant's death was that it occurred in southeastern Bangladesh's Eidgah wildlife sanctuary, one of the country's few remaining elephant refuges. Pressure from conservationists and the public to punish those responsible moved embarrassed wildlife authorities to order an investigation. The case has thrown a harsh spotlight on the precarious state of Bangladesh's elephant population. Wildlife activists say the number of elephants, protected under the 1974 Bangladesh Wildlife Preservation Act, has dwindled to only about 450, most of which survive in the rugged southeastern Chittagong Hill Tracts. The Hill Tracts, a southern extension of the Himalayas, once offered the perfect habitat. But the herds are under growing pressure from human encroachment on their feeding grounds and have been pushed to the brink of extinction by poachers. They have been declared endangered throughout Asia and are protected by the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which prohibits trading in ivory. In Bangladesh, violators face two years' jail and a fine. "Asian elephants are clearly facing extinction due to human encroachment in their habitat and lax security in the wildlife reserves," said Rashiduzzaman Ahmed, the International Union for Conservation of Nature's representative in Bangladesh. FORCED INTO MYANMAR "Unless steps are taken soon to overcome the shortcomings, the elephants will become extinct in Bangladesh in the next five to six years. Besides falling to poachers' guns, many will migrate to neighbouring countries," he said. Many of Bangladesh's wild elephants are thought to be crossing into neighbouring Myanmar, which has the largest population of Asian elephants due to a comparatively undisturbed habitat, said Dr. Zakir Hossain, IUCN regional chief for South and Southeast Asia. Clearing of forests to make way for palm oil and rubber plantations has taken its toll on the traditional foraging grounds in southeastern Bangladesh. Large groves of bamboo -- one of the elephants' favourite foods -- were wiped out to provide materials for the construction of shelters for some 250,000 Moslem refugees who arrived from Myanmar in 1992. Most of the refugees have since returned to Myanmar but the now-barren hills no longer provide enough food for the elephants, conservationists say. Khan said the human encroachment had led to increasingly frequent run-ins between elephants and people. With the destruction of their staples -- bamboo shoots and banana trees -- elephants are often forced to prey on other crops. ELEPHANTS STRIKE BACK At least 10 people died in 1997 and many others were injured when wild elephants rampaged through villages, pulling down houses and eating or trampling down crops. "Despite petitions by local residents to keep the Chunoti wildlife park (in southeastern Bangladesh) and the last remaining patches of green forest intact so that elephants remain happy within their homes, nothing has been done so far," said Anisuzzaman Khan, a wildlife biologist and executive director of Nature Conservation Movement (NACOM), a non-government organisation. He said if their natural habitat were given better protection, the elephants would have no need to venture out and clash with farmers. The Forest Department is conducting a study to determine ways to better conserve these elephant habitats. Spurred by the uproar over the poaching case, both NACOM and Bangladesh's non-governmental National Bio-Diversity Group have offered to lend expertise and manpower to the effort. As for the poachers responsible for the slaughtered elephant shown in the newspaper, Abdul Wahab Akonda, a wildlife conservation officer, said authorities were on their trail. "We are taking action," he said, but added that even if the culprits were caught, a lack of properly trained conservation personnel would leave Bangladesh's remaining herds at the mercy of poachers.