Police arrested a man Tuesday in South Khuniapalang area in Ramu upazila of Cox’s Bazar for electrocuting an Asian elephant and trying to bury it after cutting off its head and legs.

The arrestee was identified as Nazir Hamed, 48, said Mizanul Islam in-charge of Himchari police outpost.

According to locals, Nazir and his sons Tayab Ali, 34, Md Alam, 22, and Jafar Alam, 20, planted electrocuted cables in their fields to save their crops from attack by wild elephants.

On Tuesday early morning a herd of elephants came down from a nearby hill and the locals started chasing them.

At one point a mother elephant got stuck in the electrocuted cables and died.

While they were cutting up the elephant to bury it, police and officials of the Forest Department arrived on the scene and arrested Nazir.

A case under Wildlife Preservation Act was filed in this regard against twelve including Nazir and his sons, said Humayun Kabir, divisional officer of the Cox’s Bazar south.

The elephant’s body was buried after a postmortem, he said

This is a very sad incident as there were just 163 Asian elephants in the forest area of Cox’s Bazar and 20 of them bred in the last two years, said Humayun.

Upazila Nirbahi Officer of Ramu Pranay Chakma said a drive  is underway to arrest the others involved.