Two elephants were rescued Wednesday after crossing from Myanmar into Bangladesh, where they became stranded on a beach and nearly perished at sea.
Separated from their herd, the male and female elephants waded across a river marking the border between the two countries on Saturday, officials said.
The dwindling forests along southern Bangladesh and western Myanmar are among the last habitats of endangered Asian elephants.
However, one of their migration routes has been blocked since 2017 by refugee camps in Bangladesh that house hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fleeing military violence in Myanmar.
Fazlul Haque, a councilor for the coastal town of Teknaf, explained that the elephants were driven onto the beach by local villagers who were fearful due to previous fatal encounters with the animals.
Elderly resident Jahid Hossain noted that villagers had experienced significant losses of crops and even lives due to aggressive behavior from elephants.
The elephants remained stuck on the beach for four days without food, drawing large crowds of onlookers.
On Tuesday, the distressed elephants swam out into the Bay of Bengal, prompting a dramatic rescue by fishermen who used boats and ropes to bring them back to shore.
“The fishermen saved them from certain death at sea,” the regional forest department chief Humayun Kabir told AFP.
On Wednesday, the elephants were being guided inland, with residents using ropes to lead the massive animals to safety.
Raquibul Amin, the head of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Bangladesh, said this was the fourth incident of its kind since last year.
“There needs to be a transboundary dialogue between Bangladesh and Myanmar to monitor elephant movements and implement measures to reduce human-elephant conflict,” he emphasized.
According to the forest department, at least seven wild elephants have been found dead in the region since last year.
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