Within a week, a herd of at least 13 elephants tore down a concrete wall to enter Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Safari Park, north of the coastal town of Cox’s Bazar.
“They were very excited, scared and reacted as if they had been cornered,” explained park manager Mazharul Islam. “They are now very dangerous for other animals and for our visitors,” he added.
The park is home to over 1,300 animals, including Bengal tigers, hippos and other endangered species. Every day during the winter season, this place is visited by about 5,000 people.
“We are very concerned about the visitors to the park,” the official continued. “Night walks become more difficult because elephants are very restless and react aggressively,” he explained.
Fewer than 100 wild elephants live in this South Asian country, where their shrinking habitat and limited access to food are causing growing conflicts with humans.
Elephants are frightened by the growing expansion of farmland, as well as the deaths of more than 10 members of their herd, killed in the past two years, according to another from the park.
According to him, due to lack of food, elephants end up in rice fields, where they are often shocked against electrified fences.
