A writ petition has been filed with the High Court asking the government to form a high-powered probe body to investigate the unnatural death of wild elephants in Chittagong.
Supreme Court lawyer Manoj Kumar Bhowmick filed the writ on Monday, annexing a media report in this regard.
Secretary of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, chief conservator of forests, and chief conservator of forests in Chittagong region have been made respondents to the writ.
On August 23, a national English daily published a news titled "Elephant Poaching, killings: Swept under the rug.”
The report said, according to the data provided by forest departments, 106 elephants died in the Chittagong Forest Circle -- which includes Cox's Bazar, parts of Bandarban, Chittagong city, and Rangamati -- in the last 19 years.
During this period, the forest departments across this region filed only two cases and 74 general diaries in relation to elephant deaths.
Of these 106 elephants -- 32 died in accidents, 29 of sickness, 22 from old age complications, 15 of electrocution, and eight from gunshots, the report mentioned.
