Bangladesh Bans Capture and Exploitation of Wild Asian Elephants

An individual driving a wild elephant takes cash from its trunk throughout a road present in Dhaka, Bangladesh on Jan. 10, 2023. Syed Mahamudur Rahman / NurPhoto by way of Getty Pictures

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In a “landmark” ruling, Bangladesh’s Excessive Courtroom has suspended all licenses for the adoption of critically endangered wild elephants, which means they’ll now not be legally taken into captivity or exploited, reported the BBC.

The ban to guard the roughly 200 wild elephants remaining in Bangladesh was welcomed by animal rights teams. Practically half the elephants reside in captivity, based on the Worldwide Union for Conservation of Nature, as WION reported.

“The excessive courtroom right now suspended all licenses for the captive rearing of elephants,” Amit Das Gupta, Bangladesh’s deputy lawyer normal, advised AFP.

A few of the elephants have been coated in vivid paint and compelled to take part in road reveals or circuses — which the courtroom mentioned broke the license phrases — or along side solicitations for meals and cash, actions which Gupta known as “road extortion.”

“On this identify of coaching elephants, personal licensees together with circus events brutally separate elephant calves from their mom, shackle them for months after which torture them to show tips,” mentioned Rakibul Haque Emil, head of Bangladesh’s Individuals for Animal Welfare (PAW) Basis, as reported by the BBC.

Whereas Bangladesh was as soon as a primary habitat of Asian elephants, its inhabitants numbers have plummeted on account of poaching and habitat loss.

Earlier than the brand new ruling, licenses that have been issued by the forestry division to logging teams who compelled the elephants to haul logs allowed the elephants to be taken into captivity.

Emil expressed hope that elephants in captivity might be rehabilitated.

Jaya Ahsan, an actor and producer who introduced the authorized case together with PAW, mentioned she hoped the ban would put an finish to the merciless “coaching” — often known as “hadani” — that had been inflicted on the elephants.

“It is a landmark order,” Emil mentioned, as AFP reported. “We hope it’s the finish of hadani in Bangladesh.”

In Might of 2023, a younger elephant who had been exploited for road solicitation was struck by a prepare and died, pushing the dire state of captive elephants into the highlight.

Two emaciated elephants who had additionally been saved captive have been rescued by police in Might of 2019 and put within the care of the Bangladesh Nationwide Zoo in Dhaka.

Emil indicated plans to rally assist for captive elephant rehabilitation.

“A number of nations in Asia similar to Thailand and Nepal have discovered some success in rehabilitating captive elephants,” Emil mentioned, as reported by AFP. “We will do it right here.”

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