A wild elephant killed a 35-year-old man, Abdus Salam, in Naikhongchhari upazila of Bandarban on the morning of Saturday 3 January 2026. He was trying to photograph the elephant, which had come into the Titar Para Golashira area on the Alikhyong road in Baishari union, when it trampled him, and he died on the spot. He was the son of Abdur Sattar of the same area. Prothom Alo and the state news agency BSS reported that he worked as a tube-well mechanic.
How it happened
According to Prothom Alo, citing police and local sources, the elephant entered the village at about 6:30am and residents had been trying to drive it away ever since; many were filming it on their phones. Jagonews24, citing local sources, reported that at about 6:45am the elephant was crossing the road in front of Abdus Salam's house, and out of curiosity he followed a short way behind it to take pictures.
When dogs started barking nearby, the elephant became agitated, turned and charged, and trampled him. BSS, quoting eyewitnesses, said he fell to the ground as he ran. He died at the scene. Prothom Alo reported that Titar Para lies about 20 kilometres from the upazila headquarters.
What police and the forest department said
Ubaching Marma, the union parishad member for ward 6 of Baishari, told Jagonews24 that he went to the scene on hearing the news and recovered the body. Local people were then gathered to drive the elephant away.
Abdul Baten Mridha, officer in charge of Naikhongchhari police station, confirmed that the man had been killed by an elephant. The body was handed over to the family and an unnatural death case was filed. Prothom Alo reported that the body was released without a post-mortem after legal formalities.
Mostafizur Rahman, divisional forest officer of the Lama forest division, said that if the family applied for compensation, the upazila committee would verify the claim and recommend payment, and the forest department would compensate the family as the law provides. Under the Wildlife Attack Compensation Rules 2021, Bangla Tribune reported in March 2021, a death caused by a tiger, elephant, crocodile or bear carries compensation of Tk 3 lakh, serious injury up to Tk 1 lakh and loss of property up to Tk 50,000.
People and elephants in the hill district
Naikhongchhari is an upazila of Bandarban district, bordered by Lama to the north, Alikadam to the east, Myanmar's Rakhine State to the south and Cox's Bazar district to the west. Baishari is one of its five unions. Among the 12 elephant corridors the Forest Department has identified in the Chattogram and Cox's Bazar region is the Naikhongchhari-Rajarkul corridor, The Business Standard reported in 2022.
The Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) has been listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List since 1986. A Business Standard report in October 2025 said recent studies put Bangladesh's elephant population at between 228 and 327. Citing the Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation Division, it said at least 83 people were killed in human-elephant conflict between 2019 and 2025, 44 of them in Chattogram division. Elephants enter villages in search of food when habitat loss blocks their traditional routes. Elephant Response Teams with 159 members patrol in Chattogram, Cox's Bazar, Sherpur and Bandarban.
Photo: Rifatwm / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Sources: Jagonews24, Prothom Alo, Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS), Bangla Tribune, The Business Standard, Wikipedia
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