SHILLONG: As many as 80 Meghalaya elephants are holed up in Bangladesh and unable to come back.
A state forest official said the elephants landed up in Northern part of Bangladesh after breaking the border fencing in the Garo Hills-Bangladesh sector.
The elephants are not being able to come back since many habitations have come up in and around the routes earlier taken by the elephants in the Bangladesh border.
“When the time came for them to return to Meghalaya, the new human habitations prevented the easy passage of the elephants,” the official added.
According to the official, the Bangladeshi residents and forest officials had noticed the elephant herd and concluded that they were from Meghalaya as there were no wild elephants belonging to Bangladesh in the northern part of the country.
Since the elephants cannot come back to Meghalaya, the only way is to protect them.
It was in this context that on July 27, the second Indo-Bangladesh dialogue for trans-boundary conservation of elephants was held in Shillong.
The purpose of the meeting was to sign a protocol to allow animals to move freely.
“Unlike human beings, animals need unrestricted movement across the border and the protocol by both the countries will ensure safety of the animals as they are vulnerable along the border,” the forest official added.
According to the official, India has already ratified the protocol and a similar response from Bangladesh is awaited.
