Khorshed Alam, Sherpur

The failure of the government to establish a sustainable wildlife sanctuary or dedicated food reservoir in the Garo Hills region over the last thirty years has severely aggravated the human-elephant conflict across the frontier villages of Sherpur.

For over two decades, the indigenous and local border populations have lived in a state of absolute vulnerability, witnessing a recurring cycle of fatalities, where both human and elephant lives are regularly lost alongside massive destruction of agricultural crops and properties.

The crisis dates back to 1996, when wild elephant herds began raiding approximately 50 border villages stretching across a 40-kilometer hilly terrain in the Jhenaigati, Nalitabari, and Sreebordi upazilas of Sherpur. Over one lakh people—comprising Garo, Hajong, Koch, Banai Barman, Hindu, and Muslim communities—inhabit these vulnerable zones. The vast majority of this population consists of low-income day laborers and subsistence farmers whose livelihoods are entirely dependent on seasonal agriculture.

On-site investigations reveal that continuous elephant raids have devastated residential homesteads, orchards, standing crops, and public property for three consecutive decades. The wild elephant herds typically retreat into the deep foliage during daylight hours and descend upon human settlements as dusk falls in search of sustenance. To safeguard their fields and lives, local farmers are forced to keep night-long vigils, employing primitive deterrence methods such as beating drums, exploding firecrackers, and lighting makeshift torches. However, these traditional measures often provoke the cornered animals, causing the herds to charge aggressively into settlements. In desperate attempts to save their crops, some farmers have resorted to installing illegal live electrical traps, resulting in multiple elephant electrocutions.

Ailing villagers stated that maintaining a basic kit of two liters of kerosene and a functional flashlight is an expensive but mandatory emergency requirement for every household, a financial burden that displaced and landless families can barely afford. Furthermore, victims alleged that the distribution of emergency flashlights and fuel by the zila parishad, government channels, and voluntary organizations is riddled with systemic nepotism, leaving the actual affected families empty-handed. The intensity of these raids peaks during the paddy harvesting season, preventing farmers from gathering their yields. According to data from the Department of Agricultural Extension, hundreds of acres of fertile arable land now lie completely fallow due to the persistent threat of elephant incursions.

Although the Forest Department maintains a statutory welfare policy to compensate for crop damage and casualties caused by wildlife, structural loopholes deny relief to the poorest victims. Under current regulations, financial compensation is strictly restricted to legally recorded private lands.

Consequently, farmers cultivating khas land, government-allotted plots, or forest-adjacent lands are legally barred from claiming damages. Residents of Madhutila village complained that navigating the intricate bureaucratic maze to claim crop compensation is incredibly frustrating, with applications remaining stalled for years. This pervasive economic devastation has triggered an institutional breakdown of law and order along the border, driving hundreds of unemployed youths toward illegal logging, cross-border smuggling, and local theft.

To mitigate the escalating crisis, the Forest Department previously formed 25 volunteer Elephant Response Teams (ERTs) comprising ten local members each to raise community awareness and handle emergency encounters.

However, due to an absolute lack of institutional funding, logistics, and state incentives, the operational activities of these response teams have completely stalemated. Field analyses indicate that the crisis is fundamentally structural; the Indian government previously cleared vast swathes of its contiguous forest lands for commercial agricultural expansion and erected rigorous barbed-wire fencing along its international borders.

This has effectively trapped an estimated population of 120 wild elephants within the Bangladeshi sector of the Garo Hills. While the Forest Department owns nearly 21,000 acres of forest land in Sherpur, massive illegal land grabbing and the systematic destruction of natural, indigenous vegetation have severely depleted the natural canopy, triggering a chronic food scarcity for the trapped wildlife.

For thirty years, local representatives have offered empty political pledges regarding the installation of solar-powered fencing and the creation of ecological food corridors, yet no permanent solution has materialized.

Official data from the Sherpur Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation Division confirms that the human-elephant conflict has claimed the lives of 30 villagers and led to the retaliatory deaths of 30 elephants over the last two decades.

In 2016, the Forest Department spent crores of state funds to install a 13-kilometer solar-powered non-lethal electric fence across the most vulnerable segments of Jhenaigati and Nalitabari upazilas. The project covered 4.5 kilometers in Gurucharan Dudhnoi, 3 kilometers in Chhotogajni, 3.5 kilometers in Borogajni-Halchati, and 2 kilometers in Mayagachi. However, due to rampant corruption and the use of low-grade materials by the assigned contractors, the entire security apparatus became completely dysfunctional immediately after installation, providing zero utility to the endangered villagers.

When confronted with these systemic failures, the Divisional Forest Officer of Mymensingh, Kazi Md. Nurul Karim, stated that the state must balance human survival with the conservation of endangered wild elephants. He noted that the conflict is often exacerbated by irresponsible social media content creators and tourists who provoke the wild herds for entertainment, urging the public to cease such hazardous behavior.

The official assured that comprehensive administrative plans are being drafted to strengthen and incentivize the dormant ERT units. He also committed to streamlining the bureaucratic process to ensure that affected farmers receive their compensation payouts swiftly.

He acknowledged, however, that the dominance of khas and forest-owned lands in the residential belt remains the primary legal barrier preventing marginalized border farmers from obtaining formal state compensation.