Dhaka -The speakers of a round table discussion on Thursday said that at least 64 elephants were trapped on the western parts of Ukhia Rohingya camps in Teknaf in the district.Roaming around in only 50 square feet area, the poor animals were suffering from lack of food and water, said the speakers at the roundtable discussion on safety and protection of hills and animals held under the aegis of Cox’s Bazar district administration and local Forest and Environment Preservation Department at Deputy Commissioner’s office.
A report placed at the event said 118 elephants live in Cox’s Bazar among the Asian residential Bangladeshi 268 elephants. Of those 64 elephants live in Ukhia which were trapped in 50 square feet area. Now 11 lakh Rohingya refugees are residing in and around the close vicinity of wild elephants resulting in closures of their (elephants) corridor.
The 50 square feet area of elephants was surrounded by Rohingya camps on three sides while remaining side is faced towards the Bay of Bengal, the speakers said.
The speakers also suggested forming a monitoring cell to rescue the wild animals and coordinate activities of local and foreign NGO in this regard.
Deputy Commissioner Md Kamal Hossain said “We are conducting drives against hill cutting, recovering hill cutting materials from Rohingya houses and taking action against the NGOs supplying such materials.”To rescue the trapped elephants measures will be taken soon, he assured.
Additional Deputy Commissioner (Education and ICT) Ashraf Hossain, Assistant Refugee, Relief and Repatriation Commissioner SM Ishtiak Shahriar, Cox’s Bazar Development Authority representative Jahangir Alam, local Environment Department assistant director Saiful Ashrab were also present there among others.UNB
