dhaka a herd of wild elephants on friday trampled to death four members of a family in remote southeastern hills prompting over 100 families in the area to flee for safety officials said four members of a farmer family including two minors were killed while asleep at their thatched house when a herd of around eight elephants strayed into their remote village at lama area of bandarban hill district the herd also levelled four households and several rural shops more than hundred families in the neighbourhood fled their homes as the elephants had killed another person at the same village just a week ago a police official said a local reporter said he had reported 18 deaths from elephant attacks in the past two months in lama area as wild elephants come down to villages in search of food targeting harvested heaps of paddy and banana gardens bangladesh has around 400 elephants including 100 migratory pachyderms and a similar number of captive elephants forest officials said adding that up to 20 people and eight elephants are killed on an average in humanelephant conflicts every year wildlife experts and officials have long been saying human populations were fuelling more demand for land and other resources destroying the elephants habitat and placing them at greater risk of direct confrontation with people some 100 elephants had migrated to forests in northern sherpur district from indias northeastern state of meghalaya several years ago but failed to return because of infrastructural development like roads bangladesh has been asking indian authorities to take back the elephants citing damage caused by them to crops properties and human life in the region