The illegal trade in tiger parts has led to more than 1,000 wild tigers being killed over the past decade, a report suggests. Traffic International, a wildlife trade monitoring network, found that skins, bones and claws were among the most common items seized by officials. The trade continues unabated despite efforts to protect the cats, ... Read more
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The black swan
Sarwar Ahmed It was a chilly April morning when Fakhruzaman, my Bangladeshi colleague who works for Syngenta in Europe, drove me for a sightseeing tour through the idyllic English countryside near Cambridge. We stopped over for some tea and muffins in a restaurant next to a small river. White swans floated on the cold water ... Read more
U.S. military ingenuity applied to epidemic destroying honey bees
A group of Montana researchers working with the United States military has proposed a new, unique answer to the ongoing global epidemic destroying honey bee colonies: A fungus and virus working in tandem, aided by mites, may be the cause. The ongoing honey bee deaths are widespread, causing losses in the USA, Europe and Asia. ... Read more
Chindia policy to boost domestic trade
Chindia policy to boost domestic trade Kingshuk Nag When the G7 was formed in 1976 as a major economic and political group of the seven largest industrialised nations, not even the optimistic of soothsayers would have predicted that 23 years later in Pittsburg, USA, the G20 would dethrone G8 as the primary council of wealthy ... Read more
Emotionally yours
Sarwar Ahmed Late at night, my mobile phone beeped with an SMS alert. I was startled and then enthused by the content: Sorry, my mom was around. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Please don’t get mad at me. Love you too. Poor thing. She must have been in a hurry to send this text and ... Read more
Our mothering colleagues
Mamun Rashid In the 1970s to 80s, teaching and nursing were the only largely female professions. Things have changed. Women are now also commonly lawyers, physicians, bankers, investment analysts, journalists, economists, doctors, psychologists, consultants, college/university professors, pilots, defence officials, IT professionals and scientists. Women have dramatically increased their numbers in professional and technical occupations for ... Read more
No room for complacency
Zillul Hye Razi The Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) of the European Union (EU) is a preferential trade arrangement that allows reduced or zero import duties for imports from developing countries. It is a unilateral arrangement and includes the Everything But Arms (EBA) arrangement, which grants duty and quota-free access to all goods, except arms ... Read more
Vultures face extinction
Oriental vultures are disappearing so fast that their population dropped by 95 percent in Bangladesh in the last two decades, due to feeding on carcasses of cattle treated with anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac, said experts. Diclofenac is widely used in human medicine globally, and was introduced to the veterinary market in the Indian subcontinent in early ... Read more
One step ahead
Sarwar Ahmed As you step out of the lift at the entrance of an outstandingly modern, crisp and clean office, you see an oil painting of a lion and a lamb lazing together. If the painting is a paradox, so is the story of Imdad Haque, a 55-year-old Bangladeshi who locked horns with his future. ... Read more
The hidden costs of traffic
Brendan Weston The city’s traffic has grown increasingly crowded and chaotic for more than a decade, and is a disaster even by the standards of less developed countries (LDCs). Productivity is suffering, as workers with once-short commuting distances now make glacial progress in gridlocked daytime traffic that averages barely five miles an hour. Crowded into ... Read more
Riparian vegetation: A corridor for environmental stability
Dr. Md. Mizanur Rahman The word “riparian” is derived from the Latin word ‘Ripa’ (river bank).Vegetations bordering water bodies are technically known as riparian vegetations. These vegetations are also called riverine or gallery vegetations as they are grown adjacent to or near rivers. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks are called ... Read more
Assessing climate change impacts on floral diversity
Forest Mensuration Assessing climate change impacts on floral diversity Dr. Md. Mizanur Rahman Forest Mensuration provides forest inventory, forest resource monitoring, measurement principles, stand structure parameters, different sampling methods and applications. It takes into account all the resources of a forest, including timber and non-timber vegetation parameters, natural regeneration, lesser vegetation, coarse woody debris, and ... Read more
Agricultural breakthroughs
Khamin writes about the researches that have made positive differences to our agriculture sector Being mainly an agrarian economy with agriculture being the largest producing sector, the increasing performance in the sector in Bangladesh, has been fuelled by various scientific researches conducted over the past three decades. The fruition of the researches has brought about ... Read more
Bridging the divide
Sarwar Ahmed It was hot and humid with an overcast sky. As we stopped to talk to farmers about progress of rice transplantation near Soling More Bazar, at Mowna, Gazipur, the water flowing through the wayside ditch was not the usual mud colour. It was bluish-black, with a disagreeable smell. In the midst of rice ... Read more
Sub-standards and testing
BSTI reform via private partners Habibullah N Karim On August 5, the commerce minister and the prime minister’s economic adviser shared views with members of the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry on the impediments in the path of bolstering exports to India, our largest neighbour with whom we happen to have a very hefty ... Read more
Adopting European CORINE Land Cover concept
Environmental Assessment Adopting European CORINE Land Cover concept Dr. Md. Mizanur Rahman Corine Land Cover (CLC) is a database of geographic land cover encompassing most of the European countries. It is based on interpretation of satellite images. Images acquired by earth observation satellites are used to derive land cover information. It provides comparable digital maps ... Read more
Habitat loss, biodiversity loss
Dr. Md. Mizanur Rahman Our planet is changing continuously, causing habitats to be altered and modified. Tropial and sub-tropial forests are always subject to destructive natural forces — cyclones landslides, floods, mud flows, volcanic eruptions, fire, drought, and climate change. These factors are overwhelmed by anthropogenic disturbances. These forests are being logged everywhere at a ... Read more
World’s largest mangrove forest
The Sundarbans, the largest single tidal halophytic mangrove forest in the world, is intersected by a complex network of tidal waterways, mudflats and small islands of salt-tolerant mangrove forests. The name Sundarban can be literally translated as “beautiful jungle” or “beautiful forest” in the Bengali language. The name may have been derived from the Sundari ... Read more
Dewpara Sal forest: Past and present
Biodiversity Dewpara Sal forest: Past and present Dr. Md. Mizanur Rahman SAL occurs on the southern slopes of the Himalayas in Nepal, India and Bangladesh. In India Sal occupies the northern and central regions separated by the Gangetic plain. Terai (low land) is considered as the main Sal growing region of Nepal. The major portion ... Read more
The ex-factor
Sarwar Ahmed As the bus took a late evening break at a restaurant during our journey to Bogra, we wanted to eat light as dinner wasn’t too far off. We asked the young boy who waited on us, what was available. Off he went reciting rapid-fire, a list of tummy filling, yummy items. Anything light ... Read more