Maungdaw: A Burmese soldier died on Monday in the western border area after being hospitalized with severe injuries sustained when wild elephants tried to attack him, said a villager source.

The victim was identified as Min Naung, a private from an elephant catching unit formed by army authorities to capture wild elephants in the Mayu Range on the western Burma border.

Sources say that Min Naung fell down the mountainside when he was running from a group of wild elephants trying to attack him.

A few villagers from Min Lwat Village in southern Maungdaw Township were summoned by the army authorities to take Min Naung from the accident site to the Maungdaw hospital.

A column of the Burmese Army led by Captain Aung Thu Hin and Hein Khan is now stationed in Upper Myin Lwat Creek in the Mayu Range to catch wild elephants, with the help of U Pe Than from the elephant keeper station located  five miles outside Buthidaung.

Attacks by wild elephants on people in the area have increased recently due to the activities of the military, including their attempts to capture elephants.

The army column is not only capturing wild elephants but also killing them for their tusks. The army officials sell the elephant tusks to local traders at high prices for personal profit, and according to sources, the traders then export the elephant tusks to Chinese markets illegally.

Capturing and killing by the Burmese Army, has led to many elephants abandoning the Mayu Range, which has been their natural grazing ground, and moved to the Chittagong Hill Tract areas in Bangladesh.