Arakan News Agency
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United Nations plans to build more than 50 surveillance towers around the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh to protect them from wild elephant attacks, which have killed at least 10 people since nearly 700,000 Muslims, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.
The camps are dotted with traditional migration and feeding methods for animals, where they regularly enter and wreak havoc within these camps. UN officials have indicated that close to 500,000 people live close to the road of these animals, the newspaper said in a report on its Web site.
The report added that the issue was serious, necessitating the provision of resources by relief agencies. UNHCR, which helps oversee the Rohingya displaced persons, said that 17 of wild elephant response teams had been formed inside the Rohingya camps and had already repulsed many attacks of elephants, including the hunt for two elephants in the recent intrusions.
“We are going to see more attacks in the next few weeks, especially in the dry season, so these elephants are looking for food and water. It’s already a critical period,” said Caroline Glock, UNHCR representative in Bangladesh. Next to build 56 observation towers to operate 24 hours a day.
