The tradition of large number of Muslim Rohingya families is to keep women inside the house out of the sight of men. This traditional practice was difficult and abiding by in the Rohingay camps in Cox’s Bazar was hazardous and threatens health. In the day time women to stay inside the tarpaulin made shanties in a humid, hot sunny day without breeze made the insiders vulnerable to ARI (acute respiratory infections). It is severely life threatening to newborn babies and nursing mothers. The people on their own cut grass from forest and made roof with grass replacing the tarpaulin ones. They also cut open tarpaulin on the sides of the shanty for ventilators. Grass thatched roof is their traditional housing system back in the place they fled.
Cutting grass from the reserved forest nearly eliminated fodder of the elephants in the Cox’s Bazar area.
Elephant protection groups were formed to watch the human invasions inside the area preserved for elephant.