A wild elephant attacked a home in the Moittatoli area of Eidgarh, a hill-ringed union of Ramu upazila in Cox’s Bazar, on the night of Tuesday 17 June 2025. The one-and-a-half-year-old son of Amir Hamza, a local resident, died and his 10-year-old daughter was injured. Jagonews24 and Prothom Alo reported the incident on 18 June; according to Prothom Alo, it happened at about 1am.
How the attack happened
Jashim Uddin, a member of the Eidgarh union parishad, said a herd of wild elephants entered the area at night. On its way, one elephant attacked Amir Hamza’s house. Family members ran in fear, and the two children were seriously injured in the attack.
Local people drove the elephant away, rescued the children and took them to Cox’s Bazar Sadar Hospital. When the boy’s condition worsened, doctors referred him to Chattogram Medical College Hospital. He died on Wednesday on the way to Chattogram.
What the forest department said, and the compensation rules
Taukir Hasan, Eidgarh range officer of the Cox’s Bazar North Forest Division, visited the scene and confirmed the incident to Prothom Alo. He told Jagonews24 that the Forest Department would arrange assistance for the family on the basis of an application.
Under the Wildlife Attack Compensation Rules 2021, issued in March 2021 under the Wildlife (Conservation and Security) Act 2012, the family of a person killed by a tiger, elephant, crocodile or bear receives Tk 3 lakh. A serious injury carries up to Tk 1 lakh, and damage to property outside government forest up to Tk 50,000. Claims are made on a government form and checked by a committee, which sets the amount. Bangla Tribune set out these provisions on 25 March 2021.
Elephant routes and food shortage in Cox’s Bazar’s forests
Ramu is an upazila of Cox’s Bazar district covering 391.71 square kilometres. Eidgarh is one of its 11 unions. The 2022 census counted 344,545 people in the upazila.
Between 2013 and 2016 the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) surveyed elephant routes in Bangladesh. Its report, “Atlas: Elephant Routes and Corridors in Bangladesh”, identified 12 corridors in Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar, eight of them in the Cox’s Bazar region. The Bhomoriaghona reserved forest beside the Eidgarh road is an important route for Asian elephants. A Prothom Alo report of 7 June 2025 said that as food sources inside the forest dwindle, elephant herds often come into villages, damaging crops and property and sometimes costing lives.
Citing the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the same report said an Asian elephant eats about 150 kg of plants a day, including creepers, grass, reeds and bark, and drinks 140 litres of water. The Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) has been listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List since 1986.
Photo: Rifatwm / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Sources: Jagonews24, Prothom Alo, Bangla Tribune, Wikipedia
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