Bangla rice beer attracting Indian pachyderms

[Guest guest]

The Assam Tribune, Guwahati, Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Link: www.assamtribune.com

 

Bangla rice beer attracting Indian pachyderms

From Raju Das

SHILLONG, Nov 15 – For a change, it is not a Bangladeshi entity

infiltrating into India, but, is the other way round.

 

Lured by `smell of Bangladeshi paddy and rice beer', hungry

elephants from Dalu in West Garo Hills are breaking barricades and

borders to enter into foreign territory.

 

" Animals don't have any nationality, " said Chief Conservator of

Forest, Sunil Kumar, speaking to the Assam Tribune. " Herds ranging

between 40 to 50 elephants from Dalu enter into Bangladesh during

the nights and return after having their full, just during day

break " , said Kumar.

 

The forest cover in Dalu is `largely fragmented' due to jhum

cultivation. Elephants, therefore, move out of these forest areas in

search of food and has now eyed Bangladeshi territory, Kumar said.

 

" Elephants by behaviour are intelligent animals. They can smell food

over long distances. And once they develop a taste for something,

they would go all out " Kumar said.

 

Moreover, these hungry elephants have been seen tearing holes into

India's much vaunted fence along the Indo-Bangladesh border in

t@heir quest for food. Meghalaya has about 1500 elephants in the

wild. Some 1047 elephants are in Garo Hills, the rest scattered in

other parts of the state.

 

Both, India and Bangladesh are signatories of the Convention of

International Trade in Endangered Species of wild fauna and flora

(CITES). Moreover, the two nations are also signatories of

Monitoring of Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKES).

 

India's serious conservation effort for one of its endangered

animals can be gauged when Kumar says, " We do get distress calls

from Bangladesh saying `take out your elephants'. But in the absence

of any contact with our Bangladeshi counterpart, things are very

difficult, we just can't cross over " .

 

Kumar maintains that both the nations should chalk out modalities to

avoid this man-animal conflict. Further it should ensure that

conservation effort for one of the `most magnificent animals on

earth' be `carried out jointly', both by India and Bangladesh,

according to Kumar.