Wild animals, especially tigers, deer, crocodiles, tortoises, monkeys and dolphins in the Sundarban are no longer safe, as different groups of hunters are active in the world’s largest mangrove forest. There are more than 375 wildlife species which include 35 reptiles, 315 birds, 42 mammals. The major wildlife in the Sundarban include Royal Bengal Tiger, spotted deer, wild boar, monkey, estuarine crocodile, python, turtle, dolphin, otter, jungle cat, fishing cat and a variety of birds species stretching over 6,017 square kilometre area, said DFO West Division of Sundarban Zahir Uddin Ahmed.
The government is learnt to have declared three regions of the Sundarban forest as non-shooting zones. The non-shooting regions comprise 5,439 hectares of land of Kotka, 1,778 hectares of land of Hiron Point and 9,069 hectares of land of Mandarbari. But animals are not safe even in those points declared by the government as non-shooting zones.
Executive director of Sundarban Academy, Khulna Prof Anwarul Quadir said, “Now the festivity
of killing tigers, deer and many others is going on so indiscriminately that it is difficult to say how long it will exist.”
He alleged, “The notorious poachers have ‘managed’ all levels of officers of the forest from the high-ups to the field based. The local law enforcers are not beyond their dragnet. They bribe the concerned people with handsome amounts of money at fixed rate to carry their misdeeds unabated.”
Although one or two involved in the stealing are arrested, the key persons of the deal remain out of reach, Prof Quadir further said.
Some hunters in the guise of fishermen are entering the forest with passes collected from the forest department officials and killing the wild and water animals without any obstacles.
The poachers kill tigers and deer through different ways. Sometimes they fire while at other times they
use traps. After killing goats and
deer their bodies are plunged
with poison and then those are kept in the forest as bait for attracting tigers, who eat up the poisoned animals and die. Crocodiles and dolphins are also hunted by spreading nets in the canals and rivers of the Sundarban forest.
The poachers collect the skins, limbs, heads and teeth of the dead tigers, crocodiles and deer and later sell those to the international smugglers at exorbitant prices.
The skin of a tiger sells more than Taka 3 lakh, each kg bone of tiger is sold at Taka one lakh.
The poaching and trucking of the animals take place in three stages. In the first stage the animals are poached. In the second stage the skin, teeth, horns and bone are processed and stored and in the third stage these are trucked to different countries for sale at high prices.
Sources said, hides of tigers, pythons, bones and heads of tigers and crocodiles and heads and skins of deer are being smuggled out of the country particularly to China, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Myanmar and many others.
The Forest Department statistics reveal that at least 50 tigers were killed by hunters during the period from 1981 to 2004. Bangladesh Tiger Action Plan 2009-17 reports that upto two incidents of illegal tiger hunting were recorded each year while three tigers perished because of retribution killing acts by local people.
Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of Wildlife and Nature Conservation Circle, Khulna Md Zahidul Kabir said awareness of the people should be raised about the conservation of wild and water animals. It will require sincerity, honesty, morality and patriotism, not mere lip service and speeches we are accustomed to.
He also called for imparting training to the forest department officials, increasing source money, introducing prizes for good work of the forest officials and risk allowance and increasing manpower.
-With The Independent input
