Neighbour from the forest: How Barkal’s local community learned to live with wild elephants

Between lake waters and dense evergreen hills, a herd of Asian wild elephants moves quietly. One moment, they are making their way along a hillside; the next, they are wandering through orchards of amlaki (Indian gooseberry), guava, banana and litchi, in search of food.

Sometimes, that search takes them beyond the forest and into human settlements.

Their movement between the hills, forest and people's homes is part of their daily struggle to survive. As their habitat shrinks, food becomes harder to find and human settlements expand, yet a herd of Asian wild elephants continues to survive around Barkal's evergreen hills and the waters of Kaptai Lake.

Even when elephants enter Barunachhari in Rangamati's Barkal upazila, there is little panic among the locals. They feed on trees and plants, sometimes breaking branches or entire trees, and occasionally settle down for the night near people's homes. The elephants come, wander around, and leave. 

For the people of Barunachhari, their wandering has long been woven into the rhythm of everyday life. They know that when food becomes scarce in the forest, the elephants venture closer to human settlements in search of something to eat. Once their needs are met, they retreat to the depths of the hills.

So when an elephant roams through the settlement, the locals do not rush to drive it away. Instead, they read the situation and give it room to pass. 

When an elephant enters the settlement, locals read the situation and give it room to pass.

In early September this year, an elephant wandered around the home of local resident Parveen Begum. She did not shout or try to drive it away. She simply waited as the elephant moved around, feeding on its own, before eventually disappearing into the night.

Like Parveen, many residents of Barunachhari have learned to see elephants as neighbours, not as adversaries.

There are times when residents need to move an elephant out of the way. In such situations, they seek the help of members of the Elephant Response Team (ERT) and the Forest Department. Using torchlights and sounds, they guide the elephant to a safe distance. 

When necessary, they beat drums and use other instruments to create a loud enough sound to guide the elephants to return to the forest.

According to ERT members, the elephants' movements in search of food are a natural part of their behaviour. The locals' patience, coupled with a practice of moving elephants away without putting them at risk, has helped sustain this long-standing coexistence between humans and elephants.

In Barunachhari, Barkal, the arrival of elephants causes little panic among the locals.

A shrinking home

This forest seems to be their safe haven. But once, that haven stretched much farther. Over the years, hill cutting, deforestation, forest fires and the steady expansion of human settlements have gradually squeezed the elephants' habitat into a smaller space.

Even so, 10 to 12 Asian wild elephants continue to survive among the hill forests, fruit orchards and waters of Kaptai Lake around Barunachhari.

The elephants have roamed the area for more than a decade, moving with the seasons and availability of food. While the forests and Kaptai Lake provide much of what they need, they sometimes venture into nearby orchards when food becomes scarce.

An adult elephant needs roughly 100–150 kilograms of food and at least 100 litres of water a day, making the orchards an easy source of nourishment when forest food runs low.

When coexistence comes at a cost

Parveen Begum says from her experience that the elephants have not always been gentle neighbours. They have broken her Indian gooseberry and guava trees and damaged her kitchen. At times, they have even tried to break through the doors of her house and enter.

Yet she has never attacked or provoked them out of fear.

"The elephants of Barunachhari are wildlife, but the people here also depend on the forest and nature for their livelihoods. So, for generations, they have regarded the elephants as their neighbours. The level of tolerance people here show towards elephants is different from what we see in other parts of Bangladesh." Rakibul Haque Emil, animal rights activist

"They do not come into the settlement all the time, but they come when food becomes scarce. When that happens, we have to stay alert for hours. We stay up at night, keeping watch over the elephants. When an elephant enters the village, everyone remains cautious, but we never provoke or attack them. When we shine a torchlight on them, they move away," she said. 

Sometimes, Parveen senses the presence of elephants around her home once or twice a week. She has applied to the Forest Department for compensation for the damage they have caused, but has yet to receive any. 

Jafar Uddin has much the same experience. Elephants regularly wander into his orchard. Sometimes they feed on the fruit; at other times, they damage the trees and plants.

Despite the damage they suffer, the locals have also learned to be cautious when moving the elephants away. They generally do not surround the animals or venture too close. Instead, they use torchlights from a distance, along with the sound of tin sheets or other metal objects, to guide the elephants away.

When a situation becomes difficult to manage, they call in the Elephant Response Team (ERT).

The ERT works across the elephant ranges of Barkal and Langadu upazilas. Part of its job is to alert local residents when elephants are nearby, advise them on how to reduce risks, and safely guide elephants back into the forest when they stray into settlements. 

"We do not have proper equipment to move elephants away. We have things like whistles and torches. But suppose an elephant suddenly starts breaking houses right beside me. I may need to go there, but I do not even have an umbrella, a torch or a boat," ERT member Mohammad Jahangir Alam Babu, told TBS.

"We have only a few things at our disposal. At different times, we use whatever equipment or musical instruments we have, or make loud sounds, to try to move the elephant away—as much as we can," he added. 

Protecting both sides

According to local residents, the elephants in Barunachhari do not always stay together. Sometimes several move as a herd, while others roam in different parts of the area.

One person involved in monitoring the area said, "Sometimes there are five, four, or three together—different groups in different places. When I saw them today, they were spread out in smaller groups. There were five in one place, four in another, and two somewhere else."

Md Rafiquzzaman Shah, Divisional Forest Officer of the Chattogram Hill Tracts North Forest Division, told TBS that a herd of 10 to 12 elephants has been living in the Barunachhari area for a long time.

"We do not have precise information on exactly how many years they have been there. But we know they have been in the area for more than 10 to 12 years," he said. 

Saying the Forest Department has no information that the elephants have moved to another area, he added that the herd does not always move together.

Rafiquzzaman continued, "Sometimes four elephants are seen together, sometimes six or eight. They move in separate groups. So without a proper survey, it would not be right to give a precise count of the males, females and calves."

He also said the Forest Department plans to hold awareness meetings with local schools, residents and community leaders to help ensure the elephants can move safely through the area. He said the department has also received cooperation from local people in protecting the elephants and their habitat.

But coexistence cannot depend on human tolerance alone. Standing by the people who bear the cost of living alongside elephants is just as important.

According to the Forest Department, 42 applications have been submitted this year by people who have suffered losses caused by wild elephants. The applications are now being reviewed, with the process of providing compensation under the relevant rules underway.

He mentioned the Forest Department has three Elephant Response Teams operating in the Barkal area.

"The elephants of Barunachhari are wildlife, but the people here also depend on the forest and nature for their livelihoods. So, for generations, they have regarded the elephants as their neighbours. The level of tolerance people here show towards elephants is different from what we see in other parts of Bangladesh," said animal rights activist Rakibul Haque Emil. 

He believes the pattern of human settlement, unplanned development, shrinking elephant corridors and the way people respond after suffering losses all shape the extent of human-elephant conflict.

Keeping the ecosystem alive

The natural environment also plays a role in sustaining this coexistence. For elephants, the forest is more than a refuge—it is a source of food and a pathway through the landscape. Kaptai Lake provides them with a reliable source of water. As elephants move through the forest, they disperse seeds across different areas, helping the forest regenerate naturally.

This is why elephants are often called "forest engineers"—their movements help shape and renew the very ecosystem they depend on.

For Asian wild elephants, this habitat matters all the more as their range continues to shrink. In Bangladesh, the species is classified as critically endangered. Habitat loss, growing human activity in forest areas and human-elephant conflict remain among the biggest threats to their survival. 

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), its 2016 National Elephant Census recorded 268 resident wild elephants, 93 transboundary elephants and 96 captive elephants in Bangladesh. With no new nationwide survey conducted in the years since, an updated census is needed to determine how many elephants remain in the country today. 

To protect elephant habitats and reduce human-elephant conflict, the government is implementing an "Elephant Conservation Project" at a cost of nearly Tk40 crore, running from July 2025 to June 2028.

The project includes plans to establish food gardens and bamboo groves for elephants, water reservoirs, 10 kilometres of bio-fencing, 16 tree towers, two elephant rescue centres and four sheds to provide treatment for injured elephants. It also includes surveys to identify elephant corridors, the use of GPS collars to track their movements, ERTs, and awareness programmes at the local level.

A S M Zahir Uddin Akon, director of the project, told TBS that food scarcity, obstacles along elephant routes and the harassment of elephants all play a significant role in driving human-elephant conflict. Reducing these pressures, he said, could go a long way towards easing the conflict. 

A single project cannot completely resolve human-elephant conflict. Alongside raising awareness among local communities about elephant conservation, we need to involve them directly in the effort. The safety of people, the interests of those affected by elephants, and the protection of elephant habitats—all three need to be considered together, Akon said.