A writ petition was filed with the High Court today, challenging the "negligence" of the authorities concerned to protect wild elephants from unnatural death in Chattogram's forest areas.

Manoj Kumar Bhowmick, a Supreme Court lawyer, submitted the petition as a public interest litigation to the HC, also seeking its directive on the government to form a high-standing committee to conduct an inquiry into the deaths of wild elephants in the region over the years.

In the petition, he said that the officials concerned of the forest department are constitutionally bound to protect the wild elephants but they failed to comply as 84 elephants have reportedly died in the last 19 years in Chattogram.

Manoj Kumar Bhowmick told The Daily Star that he filed the writ petition based on a report published in The Daily Star on August 23 on the death of wild elephants.     

The HC may hold hearing on the petition within a day or two, he added.

The Daily Star report said, "According to forest department data, 106 elephants died in the Chattogram Forest Circle -- which includes Cox's Bazar, parts of Bandarban, Chattogram city, and Rangamati -- in the last 19 years.

During this period, 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 from sickness, 22 from old age complications, 15 from electrocution and eight from gunshots, according to the report.