The Independent, 16 September 2003
http://independent-bangladesh.com/news/sep/16/16092003ct.htm#A3
UNB, Bandarban
Sept 15: At least 35 people were killed and 1,200 other were injured in attacks by wild elephants in Lama and Sadar upazilas in this hill district in the last four years.
Wild elephants demolished 1,100 houses at Kumari of Lama and Rajbila of Sadar upazila
rendering 500 families homelessduring the period, local sources said.
A number of police and army camps located at the areas were also damaged by their attacks.
A UP member in Rajbila, Md Alamgir Chowdhury, said attack by wild elephants has increased in the last five years due to scarcity of food and disturbance by criminals who remained hiding inside the forest.
The elephants come down to the locality in search of food and demolish dwelling houses causing miseries to hill people, he said.
The elephants are so desperate that now they could not be forced back to forest easily by creating sounds or fire, he added.
Local people said herds of around 40 wild elephants usually come down to the localities of Kumari, Yangcha, Ringbong, Nayapara, Chakkata, Rangarjhiri and Bamhatichhara almost every night and cause devastation. They identified two of the elephants as mad.
To get rid of the attack, more than 100 panic-stricken families of Muslim para in Rajbila have been living on platforms erected on trees.
Some homeless families also took shelter at local schools, clubs and places of worship.
In Kumari area, about 3,000 rubber garden workers have been living in panic due to rise of wild elephant attacks.
Affected families said they had informed the authority concerned of the incidents several times or lodged GDs in respective police stations but did not get effective help.
Md Alamgir Chowdhury said they had placed a number of demands, including construction of a shelter centre, to State Minister for Chittagong Hill Tract Affairs so that they could be saved from the wild elephants’ attack.
But they have not yet got any positive response, he said.