A Report on The Status of Indian Elephant in Bangladesh

Abstract

Bangladesh being a very densely populated country there is only 16% of forest land which is very lower than the standard (25%) resulting the habitat crisis for the wild animals. Now, one of the critically endangered animals is the Indian elephant. Elephant (hati) common name for two living species of mammals of the family Elephantidae. One of the species Loxodonta africana is indigenous to Africa, and the other Elephas maximus,the Indian elephant ranges through Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan to Southeast Asia. Although once elephants were found in the forests of Sylhet and Madhupur, now in Bangladesh they are available only in certain areas of Chittagong and chittagong hill tracts. Occasionally wild elephants from Indian Territory enter in Balijpur and Durgapur areas of Mymensingh, and Patharika areas of Sylhet. Elephants are largest among the terrestrial animals and entirely hervivorous. They attain a height of about 2.5 metres. In Bangladesh, there are about 200-250 Indian elephants including the both in captivity and of the free range. The total ranging area is about 1800 km². There are about 40-50 elephants which are kept in captivity under human control with a view to entertaining people either in the zoo and safariparks or by showing circus. Wild elephants in the country breed naturally but in captivity there is a very few records of breeding properly. There are a lot of reasons involved in making the elephant critically endangered of which the destruction of habitats and the human-elephant conflict are mostly responsible. The findings of the study suggest that, to keep the Indian elephant safe the government as well as the people should grow awareness about the ecology and the importance of conservation of the elephants. People should abstain from destructing the habitats as well as they should not make any conflict with the wild elephants.