A team of four visited the reserve forest from April 23-25 and found signs of elephant activity including elephant footprints, dung and evidence of foraging. They estimate elephants had been in the area 2-4 months earlier, which tracks with local reports that elephants use the region during the local dry season, from November to March, the authors write.<\/p>\n
The team also found evidence of poaching: dried elephant skin and bones near an elevated bamboo platform with a firepit beneath it. The field researchers concluded that the site likely had been used to dry elephant meat, a common way of preserving bushmeat.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe that the primary driving factor behind poaching is bushmeat consumption, which is widely practiced among local communities. However, alongside the meat comes ivory, which is also sold,\u201d Chakma said.<\/p>\n
The state of the platform and the condition of the remains suggested they were from roughly a month earlier.<\/p>\n
No suspects related to this poaching incident were identified, but local people told the researchers that hunters from both Bangladesh and Myanmar are known to frequent the area.<\/p>\n
Human-elephant conflict has historically been the main focus of elephant conservation in Bangladesh, while poaching has largely been overlooked, Chakma said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDue to the remoteness of the area, this region is often left out of conservation discussions altogether, yet it holds great potential. The narrative needs to shift, and we believe this finding is an important step in that direction,\u201d Chakma said.<\/p>\n