Man Vs Wild -II

Strange incidents perish 4 elephants in November.
Reasons of the killing no one bothers to remember.
Redesigning the policy and education hold the key
To change attitude towards the wild in vicinity.

Another disturbing piece of news revealed that an elephant was shot dead in Lohagora upazila of Chattogram. This month alone witnessed killing of three elephants in Cox's Bazar. One of them was electrocuted. Though the news report did not disclose the cause of the killing, some miscreants nowadays indulged in elephant killing on too many occasions. Department of forestry and IUCN, as the news report reported, claimed that 11 elephants had been killed in 2020.

It is a shame that this cruelty have been continuing unabated for some years. I was taken aback by another news of BBC. The story said a baby elephant fell inside a well in a village in Tamilnadu, India. Villagers and firefighters did everything to rescue the trapped elephant. Visibly different actions from two culturally close groups of people.

There is no denying that demographics, vegetation, villagers' behavior towards strangers, villagers' behavior towards animal have gone through rapid changes since the influx of Rogingyas. Forests located near the frontier transformed. In the face of accommodation need and agricultural activities, forests waned.Vegetation became thinner. Paddy fields invaded elephant tracks. Poor souls in search of foods trampled along the paddy fields, damaged thatched roofs and killed few villagers, causing worries to farmers. But recent killings did not hint that these were acts of angry villagers. In fact, villagers reported the killings.

Unwarranted hatred and tortures meted out to the elephants need to be probed. Investigative should be started to find out why the recent killings took place.

In one of my earlier pieces titled " Man Vs Wild" , I argued how sustenance of population encroached on forest lands.So habitats for animals are fast disappearing to feed the hungry population. Elephant tracks that straddled along both sides of the border for decades after decades also fell victim to this.

Humans have the ability to find new place to stay, to find new land to till, to convert wild forests into cultivable land, to cut trees to make firewood and to search and grow new crop when the existing ones became hard to find to fill stomach. Unfortunately poor creatures like elephants lack this ability. So they continue to maraude paddy fields, to knock out banana trees, steal crops and attack anything that causes obstacle on its way.

Failure to create symbiotic relationship between man and the wild lies in the flawed incentive structure in our development policies. Redesigning the incentive structure could easily save lives of endangered species and secure their habitats as well. At the same time, agricultural land, small commerce, villages situated in the vicinity of the habitat could also get benefits.

A peasant who receives regular allowance /grant for the damage or loss he sustained from trampling of wild animals will not cause any harm to them. Instead he took great care of them. In addition, he will take great care to the habitats of the animals.

Incentives can be given in many forms. For instance, a village located near a forest can be subject of a school stipend program for children of villagers so that they continue their education. The aim of the stipend program is to induce villagers to take an amiable stance towards the wild.

Financing such incentive programs will not be a difficult task as many bad projects swallow hard-earned money of the tax payers. Diverting these funds to finance the incentive structure will not be a difficult task. Scope of such programs will be small compared to other social security programs as forests are receding fast.

Many primitive society still displays far more greater responsibility towards the nature and the wild than us. In Africa, parents of a newborn of a primitive society take the umbilical cord to a nearby forest and bury it. The ritual is performed so that the baby develops a strong bond to mother nature and performs its duty diligently at later stages of its life.

Education can also play a role to develop some kind of responsibility towards the wild. Textbooks in elementary schools can incorporate stories, fables that inculcate students about rights of animals, developing fondness towards them, importance of protecting their habitats. Education and grooming at an early stage can make a lot of difference in our behavior towards animal and nature at later stages. Incident in Tamilnadu and that in Lohagora furnish the evidence. It is imperative that government and policy makers revise their incentive structure and redesign the policies to protect the wild.