Rohingya refugees face the rage of displaced elephants

Nobody could have cared less if they were the size of a regular household bull – or at least they would have cared less – but they are not; they are elephants. Some weigh up to 5 tonnes but despite the enormous size, they are easily scared when they see something unusual. Nowadays, these magnificent mammals from the hills of Cox’s Bazar are being scared by the Rohingya camps.

Bangladesh was completely taken aback when the sudden influx began in August 2017.The Rohingya refuges did not care if there was any place for them to live or enough supplies to eat – scared to death, they just crossed the border to flee one of the most brutal ethnic cleansings in world history by the Myanmar government. They were everywhere – paddy fields, roadsides ditches; in fact, they filled up every empty space near the border.

It took the government in Bangladesh several months to recuperate and think of a solution. Around 80% of an official total of 700,000 of the refugees were sent to makeshift camps on the sides of the hills in Cox’s Bazar.

These camps – already among the biggest refugee camps in the world – fall on a major transboundary elephant habitat corridor between Bangladesh and Myanmar. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there are about 40 elephants in the area and they move between Bangladesh and Myanmar in search of food.

At least 12 people have been killed by different elephant stampedes in the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar since the camps were built.


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