A day after an elephant, which had strayed from Indian territory to Bangladesh, was killed by the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), there was no report of senior forest officials or the country’s border guarding forces of taking up the issue with their counterparts in Bangladesh.
While State Forest Minister Benoy Krishna Barman said that he will discuss the matter with his officials, senior forest officials said that they cannot reclaim an animal if it strays into another territory.
Senior Forest officials The Hindu spoke to said that there is no standard operating procedure in such cases and they are yet to decide whether to take the issue of killing of the tusker with authorities in Bangladesh.
On the morning of April 20, a wild tusker had strayed into Bangladesh by swimming across river Padma from West Bengal’s Murshidabad district. The elephant which was killed by the BGB and Bangladesh police was buried about four km from international border in Bangladesh territory.
The Border Security Force officials said that the BGB had sent a report on Tuesday regarding the burial of the animal. According to senior BSF officials, the killing was ordered by a Magistrate. According to reports published in Bangladeshi media, 54 bullets were fired to kill the pachyderm.
“There is no standard operating procedure in case an animal strays into another territory”
