BSS, Jamalpur :Bangladesh plans to keep a rescued Indian elephant as forest officials overnight salvaged it from swamps after over six weeks of frantic efforts, officials said here yesterday.”The elephant may be kept at Bangabandhu Safari Park (at Gazipur) as it has been separated from its herd in the hilly forests in Assam . . . Indian authorities have agreed to the arrangement,” retired deputy chief forest conservator Tapan Kumar Dey told BSS here. He said the elephant was unlikely to be accepted by the herd if returned to the forest “which could be dangerous for it to survive there”.Dey, who oversaw the rescue efforts over the past several weeks, added that the male elephant still needed some more days to regain health at Koira village, where it was rescued yesterday with the help of tranquilizer darts.A BSS reporter who visited the scene at Sarishabari upazila yesterday saw the elephant calmly eating banana trees with its two back feet loosely shackled while hundreds of onlookers still crowding the scene requiring deployment elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and policemen to maintain discipline.”It appeared weak while veterinary surgeons administered medicines for wounds across its huge body,” he said adding that apart from banana trees the forest officials provided sugarcane, banana and molasses to the elephant who ate up everything except molasses. Villagers said the presence of the much-talked-about elephant required them to entertain a huge number of relatives who came to see it from faraway places.
