Monday, November 10, 2008

Elephants on the rise again in Tripura

Press Trust of India
November 4, 2008

Agartala, Nov 4 (PTI) The Tripura government has decided to set-up an elephant reserve in the state to preserve the animal which had nearly disappeared due to large-scale poaching and migration to neighbouring Bangladesh.
The latest census has shown that the population of the elephant has gone up from 38 in 2002, when the last census was taken, to 59 now, the State Board for Wild Life said.

The chief wildlife warden, Atul Gupta, said the figure was excellent considering the rapid decline in the number of elephants over the last few years.

Just 30 to 40 years ago, elephants were even seen on the streets of Agartala, forest officials said. The rot actually started with the cutting down of forests for construction of a hydel power project on river Gomati.

With the loss of their habitat, the elephants started migrating to Bangladesh where forests were abundant. Gupta said a large number of elephants had migrated to the Chittagong hill tracts in Bangladesh from the Gomati Wild Life Sanctuary.

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