Rohingya 'tusk force' keeps refugees safe from deadly elephants

Aljazeera

by Susannah Savage

14 Mar 2019

Volunteers teach people how to behave with elephants used to migrating through forest that now hosts refugee camps.

 

Building an elephant puppet involved the whole community, from the bamboo structure to the fabric made from used clothes and rags [Susannah Savage/Al Jazeera]

At least once a year, the Asian elephants living in southern Bangladesh migrate eastwards, passing through the forest that straddles the border with Myanmar.

Elephants face 'time bomb' in Bangladesh land clash with Rohingya refugees

REUTERS
February 7, 2019,

Belinda Goldsmith

 

COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Standing atop an elephant watch-tower on the outskirts of the sprawling Rohingya refugee settlement in southeast Bangladesh, Nur Islam takes great pride in keeping his people safe.

Dressed in a uniform of blue T-shirt, navy trousers and a neon yellow vest, Islam is one of 570 Rohingya on the Elephant Response Team, known locally as the tusk force, who are on duty every night to look out for elephants coming into the camps.