Destroying biodiversity hotspots, the Bangladeshi way

Last week, an elephant calf died brutally. 

The death of wildlife in Bangladesh, elephant or otherwise, is nothing new—a fishing cat beaten to pulp here, an elephant crushed there, a vulture captured and cooked somewhere else—these are considered common occurrences. 

But this death was different.

This elephant was struck by a train, and it's back was broken, its body was bruised, and it's leg bone was shattered, piercing through muscle. 

For the first 36 hours, the young elephant lay helpless by the rail track, with thousands of onlookers documenting its pain. Ultimately, it died at a large zoo in Cox's Bazar, after three days of agonising suffering.

In addition to the gory nature of its death, this tragedy was especially notable as it occurred at the frontier of a newly emerging human-elephant conflict. With a hand-wavy scientific justification, the former Bangladesh government pushed forward an ambitious rail development project through three internationally recognised protected areas, located on the western fringes of the Indo-Burma Biodiversity Hotspot.

The elephant's death is certainly not the first on the newly built Dohazari-Cox's Bazar Railway track, which began operating on 12 November 2023. It seems that in Bangladesh, it takes the death of an elephant to capture our attention on a grave conservation crisis rapidly spiralling out of control.

Of biodiversity hotspot and elephant corridor 

The Chattogram Hill Tracts are part of the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot. In addition to the last primary forest stands of the three hill districts, the mixed evergreen forests of Cox's Bazar and Chattogram constitute the western edges of the hotspot.

According to the definition of a paper published in the journal "Nature" in 2000, to qualify as a biodiversity hotspot, a region must meet two strict criteria: it must contain at least 1,500 species of vascular plants (more than 0.5% of the world's total) as endemics, and it has to have lost at least 70% of its primary vegetation. Globally, 36 zones qualify under this definition. 

The Dohazari-Cox's Bazar Railway track pierces through two wildlife sanctuaries and one national park recognised by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN): Chunati Wildlife Sanctuary (77.63 square kilometres), Fasiakhali Wildlife Sanctuary (13.02 square kilometres), and Medhakachhapia National Park (3.95 square kilometres). Of the 102-kilometre rail line, approximately 27 kilometres pass through these three protected areas. 

Furthermore, a comprehensive study identified 16 elephant corridors along the 27-kilometre track traversing these three forests. The IUCN conducted this critical research in 2016 to delineate the elephants' routes. 

However, in the same year, the government de-reserved 276 acres of these forests, leading to the felling of 720,443 trees and modifications to 26 hills to accommodate the rail line's construction. 

The project commenced in March 2018.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence

Bangladesh traditionally suffers from a lack of conservation and research investment in wildlife. This absence of conservation science and skilled practitioners often costs our biodiversity dearly. Except for elephants, there is not a single study in these three protected areas that used contemporary study techniques involving any other wildlife. 

Existing books and lexicons say that these areas potentially harbour several threatened animal species such as pangolins, fishing cats, hog badgers, barking deer, etc. However, due to a lack of recent studies, we do not know which species currently reside there. 

Patch forests of Cox's Bazar like the Himchari and the Inani National Parks have recent and verified records of leopards and clouded leopards. The discovery of the leopards was published in the "Journal of Threatened Taxa" in 2017 by members of the Chittagong University. 

This is the characteristic of biodiversity hotspots—rare and elusive animals still prefer to call them home to the very end. 

In tragic contrast, in 2018, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) conducted a Baseline Biodiversity Assessment (BBA) to assess the project's impact on biodiversity. The final BBA report highlighted only elephants and advocated for the construction of one overpass and two underpasses for the 27-kilometre track, contradicting the existence of 16 active elephant corridors.

Perhaps they presumed that the wildlife can read signboards.

If the animals could read, they would understand that they were left with two choices: Either use the path that was built for them, or risk death. 

Some appalling facts

To examine the adverse effect of linear infrastructure in protected areas in Bangladesh, we need to look at 12 square kilometres of Lawachara National Park in Sreemangal. Slicing the park in three pieces, one British-era track and a highway traverse the mixed evergreen forest. 

In a 2019 article published in the journal "Zoologia", researchers from Jagannath University conducted a study on the effects of road accidents and electrocution from power lines on primate mortality. 

Within two years of the survey, the authors recorded 27 fatalities of five different species of monkeys and langurs. 

Does the same future await the wildlife in the forests of Cox's Bazar? Are there any plans for post-impact surveys?  

Why were the thermal sensors not installed before the trains began operating on this line? Why was there a severe delay in the treatment of the elephant? Where is the situational preparedness in this South Asia's first elephant overpass? Or is it built under the assumption that the elephants are highly educated and should know to use the overpass to avoid accidents?

The Dohazari-Cox's Bazar Railway track was built with Tk18 thousand 34 crore ($15.07 billion), which made it the most expensive railway track in the world. 

The initial proposed budget had considered an allotment of Tk21 crore ($1.76 million) for the security and welfare of wildlife. Later, even this relatively small budget was cut down to save expenditure. 

Body of lies 

The surprise came in waves after I had started looking into the matter, following the shocking death of the elephant. 67 kilometres of forests and 13 kilometres of hills gave way to the rail line. 

According to media reports, the project personnel claimed that the mangrove patches of the concerned forests would not be damaged. 

However, all the photos featured in the news as well as those taken by several wildlife photographers tell a different story: The track goes straight through the hill forests. 

The second surprise was a Facebook live feed. 

Several animal activists visited the baby elephant while it was still fighting to survive,  and interviewed the personnel involved. 

I noticed a former official of the forest department (one of the proponents of the controversial and now-cancelled Lathitila Safari Park) talking about applying thermal sensors and motion-triggered cameras to monitor future elephant movements. 

Despite my years of experience in camera trapping, I could figure out little from his mumbling about how camera traps can help reduce this conflict. 

The biggest surprise was the green-washing claim that the poorly built elephant overpass in Chunati was the first-ever in South Asia. 

Now, the questions still remain: Why were the thermal sensors not installed before the trains began operating on this line? Why was there a severe delay in the treatment of the elephant? Where is the situational preparedness in this South Asia's first elephant overpass? Or is it built under the assumption that the elephants are highly educated  and should know to use the overpass to avoid accidents?

Silence of the lambs

The cycle is vicious and has a compounded effect. 

While environmental activism is growing in Bangladesh, it remains largely absent among conservation practitioners and professionals.

As a result, most movements are generally unfocused and easily suppressed, as concerns are rarely presented by scientists.

The rail project was in full swing during the protests against the destruction of Lathitila, yet no one raised concerns about the rail line itself.

Even after this horrific casualty, there is an eerie silence from the conservationist community. Without taking any active measures, more trains are immediately scheduled for this controversial track. 

In Chattogram, more hills, home to marbled cats, are to be razed to secure the newly built Bayezid Link Road, which was also constructed by destroying forests of the Sitakunda Range. 

With the absence of effective science practice in wildlife conservation, the silence of professionals, and a development-obsessed mindset, it appears that we have a unique Bangladeshi method to destroy biodiversity.