To check human-elephant conflict and illegal poaching of elephants across the India-Bangladesh border, the union home ministry has cleared decks for signing an agreement for creation of special corridors for migration of jumbos.
The two countries have had few meetings on the issue and with Border Security Force (BSF) on board with the idea, environment ministry hopes they will soon be able to ink an agreement aimed at conservation of elephants.
In a communiqué to environment ministry, the home ministry said “the matter has been examined in consultation with BSF and security agencies. The recommendations appear to be logical and would help in minimizing human-animal conflicts in addition to controlling illegal activities related to poaching and smuggling of elephants.”
India has around 3,000 elephants on its side while Bangladesh has around 200 elephants. A similar agreement is also expected with Nepal.
The recommendations were made after a meeting was convened for trans-boundary elephant conservation last year. Both the sides were of the opinion that dedicated corridors are required along the 4000-kilometer fenced border for free migration of elephants.
The home ministry has, however, asked for some cautions to that these corridors are not misused by insurgents.
“While creating corridors for movement of elephants along the borders, issues related to security needs to addressed. The possibility of using these corridors by insurgents/militants cannot be ruled out. From security point of view, creation of such corridors would require expensive preparation,” said the communication.
It further said that adequate surveillance mechanism may be established to keep a check of any suspicious movement through the designated corridors and conduct awareness programmes among bordering villages in order to sensitize them on various security concerns related to elephant moments.
The home ministry also recommended that a representative of MHA may be included as a member in committee to develop protocol/MoU between Indian and Bangladesh on the issue related to form of elephant corridors.
“The moment of forest officials across the international border should be discouraged as forest official of either side may take care of movement of elephant in respective territory. Beside, examine to establish forest check post in this area,” it added.
India with over 28,000-30,000 elephant population houses the largest number of jumbos in Asia. Over 200 elephants have been killed in the last three years due to poaching, electrocution, train hit and poisoning.