The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Bandarban

Simultaneous raids of wild elephants at two remote Bandarban villages left six people injured, prompting hundrdes of frightened villagers of the rugged region to flee their homes.

Officials and witnesses said a herd of wild elephants attacked again the remote Tirer Deba village of Lama this time injuring critically a widow and his 22-year son three days after the monster beasts trampled to death four members of one family in the same village.

Police said in a simultaneous raid at rugged Chhagalkhaia village at neighbouring Naikhangchhari upazila injuring four, three of them seriously.

The injured were being treated at local facilities while preparations were underway to send the critically wounded persons to Chittagong Medical College Hospital for better treatment, they said.

One elderly woman was killed as the herd of elephants attacked the same area 10 days ago.

More than 100 families of the two villages fled their homes overnight for safer places in view of the repeated attacks by the wild elephants in the region.

Another 100 families deserted their homes at Tirer Deba alone after the deaths of the four villagers there three days ago.

Eighteen deaths were reported in Lama and neighbouring Naikhangchhari and Chokoria in the past two months as the elephants raided villages coming down from the forests in search of food, targeting harvested heaps of paddy and household banana gardens.

Bangladesh has nearly 400 elephants, including 100 migratory pachyderms, and a similar number of captive elephants, forest officials said adding that up to 20 people and eight elephants are killed in human-elephant conflicts every year on an average.

Wildlife experts and officials have long been saying that human populations were fuelling more demand for land and other resources, destroying the elephants' habitat and placing them at a greater risk of direct confrontation with people.

Some 100 elephants migrated to forests in northern Sherpur from India's northeastern state of Meghalaya several years ago, but failed to return because of development of infrastructure like roads by Indian authorities.

Bangladesh has been asking Indian authorities to take back the elephants saying they were causing damage to crops, properties and human life in the region.