Last month, a video sent shockwaves across social media: an adult wild elephant repeatedly ramming into a moving train as the Shoikat Express, bound for Cox’s Bazar, passed through the Chunati Wildlife Sanctuary in Chittagong’s Lohagara upazila. The sight sparked panic among passengers, though thankfully no casualties or injuries occurred.
A week later, while travelling on the same train, this correspondent noticed that some concrete fences, overpasses, and underpasses had been built along the rail line to prevent further collisions. The railway cuts through one of the country’s key elephant habitats, home to around 38–40 wild Asian elephants. Yet nearly 600 metres of the track remain unfenced, a dangerous stretch elephant frequently cross.
Such incidents are far from rare. Every year, dozens of people and elephants perish in clashes caused by encroachment and habitat loss. Rapid deforestation, expanding settlements, and agriculture have drastically reduced elephant territories. Deprived of food and space, elephants increasingly enter human settlements, sparking deadly encounters.
During a World Elephant Day event, Syeda Rizwana Hasan, Adviser to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and the Ministry of Water Resources, highlighted the government’s initiative, stressing the importance of preserving elephant habitats. “We must plant elephant-friendly trees, secure migration corridors, accurately survey populations, and implement measures to resolve human-elephant conflicts. This is the need of the hour,” she said, adding that regulating captive elephants, raising rural awareness, and ensuring sustainable wild habitats are equally important.
After nearly a decade, the government has launched a Tk 40 crore initiative to protect the Asian elephant population, restore habitats, and curb human-elephant conflict. The three-year “Elephant Conservation Project”, implemented by the Forest Department under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, will run from July 2025 to June 2028.
Project Director ASM Jahir Uddin Akon, also conservator of Forests, told Dhaka Tribune, “This is the most significant elephant conservation initiative in the country in the past decade, following the 2015 IUCN elephant research project.”
The project plans to develop 350 hectares of elephant food plantations and 50 hectares of bamboo groves, safeguarded with strong protective measures. Ecological boundary bio-fencing will stretch 10 kilometres, using living barriers of bamboo, lemon, and jujube trees to reduce human-elephant conflicts.
Anti-Depredation Squads (ADS), Elephant Response Teams (ERT), and Elephant Rescue Teams will operate in areas adjacent to reserves for rapid intervention. 16 watchtowers will monitor elephant movements, while two rescue centers will be established at Gazipur Safari Park and Dulahazara Safari Park. Temporary medical sheds will be set up in Sylhet, Chittagong, Rangamati, and Sherpur.
Anthropogenic and climate-change impacts on human-elephant conflict will also be studied, alongside ethnographic surveys. A new 10-acre sanctuary at Chunati in Chittagong will rehabilitate captive elephants.
Project objectives, according to Project Director ASM Zahur Uddin Akon, include:
Habitat conservation and restoration – protecting forests, planting elephant food trees (350 hectares) and bamboo groves (50 hectares).Reducing human-elephant conflict – using technology, rapid response teams, and awareness campaigns.Rescue and care – establishing one sanctuary, two rescue centers, and four medical sheds.Monitoring and research – employing GPS collars, ecological surveys, and conflict mapping.Community involvement – training locals, forming volunteer squads, and engaging youth in conservation.
Once roaming freely across South and Southeast Asia, Asian elephants are now listed as Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Globally, their population ranges between 35,000 and 50,000, with nearly two-thirds concentrated in South Asia. Bangladesh faces an even graver situation.
According to the 2015 IUCN survey, only 210–330 resident elephants remain, along with 80–100 migratory elephants moving across Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram, and Myanmar’s Rakhine region.
The project spans 13 forest divisions—Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar, Bandarban, Khagrachhari, Mymensingh, Sylhet, and Rangpur—covering most elephant habitats and areas prone to human-elephant conflict.