バングラでゾウ２頭救出　浜辺で立ち往生し騒動に

【テクナフＡＦＰ＝時事】バングラデシュで、隣国ミャンマーから川を渡ってたどり着き、浜辺で立ち往生して一時は溺れそうになっていたゾウ２頭が６月３０日、内陸の安全な場所へと移された。（写真はバングラデシュ・テクナフ郊外の浜辺で、ゾウを誘導する地元住民）
　バングラデシュ当局によると、２頭は群れからはぐれた雄と雌で、ミャンマー側から国境の川を渡ってやって来た。両国にまたがる森林は、絶滅の危機にひんするアジアゾウの数少ない生息地の一つだが、面積の縮小が続いている。２０１７年以降、ミャンマー軍の弾圧を逃れた少数民族ロヒンギャ数十万人が暮らす難民キャンプができたことで、ゾウの移動ルートの一つが失われた。
　海岸沿いの町テクナフの住民はＡＦＰに対し、以前ゾウに襲われて亡くなった人がいたため、おびえた人々がゾウ２頭を浜辺へと追い込んだと語った。大勢の見物人が集まる中、餌のない浜辺で４日間を過ごした２頭は、２９日にはパニックを起こして海に入り、漁師らが船やロープを使って岸へ連れ戻す騒ぎとなっていた。
　地域の森林当局トップはＡＦＰに対し、「ゾウは漁師らのおかげで死なずに済んだ」と話した。
　国際自然保護連合（ＩＵＣＮ）のバングラデシュ支部は、昨年以降、同様の問題が起きたのは今回が４回目だと説明。「人間とゾウの摩擦を減らす措置を講じていくため、ゾウを監視できるよう、両国の対話が必要だ」と指摘した。森林当局によると、同域では昨年以降、少なくとも７頭の野生ゾウの死骸が見つかっている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/07/01-12:00）

Two elephants were being led to safety Wednesday after crossing from Myanmar to Bangladesh, getting stranded on a beach and nearly dying at sea.
Separated from the rest of their herd, the male and female elephants waded across a river marking the border on Saturday, officials said.
Dwindling forests straddling southern Bangladesh and western Myanmar are some of the last remaining habitats of endangered Asian elephants.
One of their migration routes has been blocked since 2017 by refugee camps in Bangladesh housing hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who fled a Myanmar military offensive.
The pair were driven onto the beach by locals intimidated after previous encounters in which people have been killed, Fazlul Haque, councillor for the seaside town Teknaf, told AFP.
Elderly villager Jahid Hossain said residents had very bitter experience of losing crops and even lives to these elephants as they can become very aggressive.
Stuck on the beach for four days without food, and having attracted thousands of onlookers, the elephants swam out to the Bay of Bengal in a panic on Tuesday.
Fishermen had to carry out a dramatic rescue using boats and ropes to bring them back to shore.
The fishermen rescued them from certain death in the sea, regional forest department chief Humayun Kabir told AFP.
On Wednesday, the pair were being led inland, Kabir said.
Local residents tied ropes around the massive animals' necks to coax them to safety.
Raquibul Amin, country head of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), said this was the fourth such incident since last year.
We need a transboundary dialogue between Bangladesh and Myanmar to monitor the elephants so that we take measures to reduce human-elephant conflict, he added.
At least seven wild elephants have been found dead in the region since last year, according to the forest department.