Open extortion is going on in Narail using elephants. Money is being collected with elephants, sometimes standing on roads and sometimes entering markets large and small. Some people pay happily, but many are forced to pay out of fear of the elephant or out of embarrassment. In this way mahouts (elephant handlers) are collecting between Tk 2,000 and Tk 2,500 a day.

Tarikul Islam (24) of Satkhira was collecting money with an elephant. He told Jagonews that he had brought the elephant for a circus show in the Mawa area of Madaripur, and in between was going to different districts every day to collect money this way. He said part of the money has to be given to the elephant's owner.

Tahidul Islam, owner of Mitali Pharmacy in Rupganj bazar, said: "Even if I don't want to, when an elephant comes in front of the shop I am forced to pay, because there is such a thing as embarrassment."

Santu Ghosh, general secretary of the Narail Rupganj Chamber of Industry and Commerce, said the mahouts do not take any permission from the traders' association to collect money with elephants.

Asked about the extortion, the elephant's owner, Solaiman Molla, told Jagonews: "We do not extort. People come running to see our elephant. We take whatever people give happily."

Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Habibur Rahman said collecting money this way is wrong, though it is a different matter if someone pays of their own wish. "We are taking note of the matter. Steps will be taken so that such incidents do not happen," he said.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.