Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries.
Bangladesh is preparing to add to its tally of 56 protected areas by declaring a new sanctuary in its northeast — not for forests or tigers, but for a group of elephants trapped by geopolitics, reports Mongabay’s Abu Siddique.
The “non-resident” herd, believed to have migrated from India’s Meghalaya state, has been stuck in the border region since 2019, when cross-border elephant corridors were blocked by Indian fencing. Since then, these elephants have roamed the cropland-dominated Bangladeshi districts of Sherpur, Mymensingh and Netrokona in search of food, fueling increasingly deadly conflicts with humans.
The plan follows an on-site assessment prompted by a March investigation by Mongabay. Syeda Rizwana Hasan, an adviser to the Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change, said the government intends to both protect the area and reduce human-elephant clashes.
“At the same time, we will continue to talk to India to find a sustainable solution,” she told Mongabay.
Experts remain cautious. Zoologist Mohammed Mostafa Feeroz warned that most of the 200-square-kilometer (77-square-mile) stretch in question is already densely populated. He stressed the need to reopen the four existing transboundary elephant corridors and called for a comprehensive management plan, including the deployment of local elephant response teams and the diversification of crops to deter elephants.
With only 268 resident elephants remaining and rising conflict deaths, Bangladesh’s elephants are in crisis. International cooperation, including implementation of a 2020 bilateral protocol and the 2025 Siem Reap Declaration, may be crucial.
Conservation, in this case, may hinge as much on diplomacy as it does on ecology.
Read the full story by Abu Siddique here.
Banner image: Locals pass wild elephants on a farmland in northeastern Bangladesh. Image by Mohammed Mostafa Feeroz.
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