Outsiders banned in Koyra to cut down on visitors of captured elephant (Bangladesh)

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Jamalpur Correspondent,  bdnews24.com

Date Published
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The authorities have slapped a ban on outsiders at Koyra in Jamalpur’s Sarishabarhi to tackle crowds coming to see a captured Indian elephant.

Jamalpur Deputy Commissioner Md Shahabuddin Khan visited the elephant on Friday afternoon and ordered the ban.

“The process to relocate the elephant has become risky due to the pressure of crowd. So, outsiders have been banned on the streets in Koyra,” he told reporters at Sarishabarhi Dak Bungalow.

Sarishabarhi Upazila Nirbahee Officer Sayed AZ Morshed Ali said the local administration had deployed police and RAB personnel to tackle the crowd. Fire Service workers had also been called in.

Former Forest Department official Dr Tapan Kumar Dey, who headed the rescue operation, said the male elephant was named ‘Bangabahadur’.

The elephant, which washed away into flooded shoals of Bangladesh around one and a half months ago, was tranquilised and dragged ashore on Thursday afternoon.

It woke up later on Friday and was eating normally, Dey said.

The elephant will have to be kept in the area for five to seven more days because the officials could not bring truck and crane to move it in such a remote area, Dey said on Thursday.

Officials had earlier planned to take the elephant to a safari park before setting him free in the Garho hills where he can unite with packs of wild Indian elephants.

The elephant from Indian state of Assam entered Bangladesh through Kurhigram border in June.

It walked a few hundred kilometres into Bangladesh to Sirajganj via Gaibandha and Jamalpur and then travelled back to Jamalpur.

A team of experts from India had come to help rescue the elephant, but failed.

 

http://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2016/08/13/outsiders-banned-in-koyra-to-cut-down-on-visitors-of-captured-elephant