41 tigers killed, 11 die in 17 years
World Tiger Day would be observed today in the country as elsewhere in the world underlining the need for protecting the endangered tiger species against total extinction.
Some 41 tigers were killed and 11 died normally in last 17 years in the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest, said forest officials.
According to Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation Division of Forest Department’s Khulna office, a total of 52 tigers were either killed or they died between 1996 and June 2013. Of them, local people killed 25 by beating, 16 tigers were poached and 11 died normally.
Wildlife and tiger experts were worried over
the killing of tiger which is an endangered species and the world is left with fewer than 4,000 of them while three out of its eight sub-species are now extinct.
However, forest department officials alleged that inadequate protection to resist poaching, meagre logistic support and manpower, uncontrolled movement of trawlers and speedboats in deep forest threatened the survival of existing tigers in Bangladesh.
Divisional forest officer of Sundarbans (East) Md Amir Hossain Chowdhury told New Age according to the tiger census jointly done by Bangladesh and India in 2004, there are about 440 tigers in the Sunderbans, 121 of them males, 298 females and 21 cubs.
He said that nearly seven million people are directly or indirectly dependent on the Sundarbans, and live by fishing, collecting honey, collecting firewood and gol-pata and also hunting deer.
As a result of the degradation of, and encroachment on, the tiger’s habitat, including decreasing availability of prey, tigers have entered human localities 123 times in 2009 and 2010, resulting in the death of five of these magnificent cats, Amir said.
He said that in some countries there is a huge demand of body parts, bones, teeth and skin of tiger, deer and crocodile. For this reason, with the help of international smugglers local smuggling groups were also active and they continues poaching wildlife including tiger.
Amir said that many big ships and cargo vessels travel from Nondobala-Chandpai-Mrigamari-Andharmanik-Tambulbunia-Horintana-Dhudmukhi-Shoronkhola-Terabeka and Bogi. Every day a good number of river transports go to the deep forest of Sundarbans and most of them were engine boats belonging to miscreants.
These ships and cargo boats sometimes collect pass from forest department to enter into the forest carrying rice, pulse and other food items for pirates in exchange of body parts, skin, bones of tigers and other wild animals, he said.
On the other hand, Jahnagirnagar University associate professor of Zoology M Monirul H Khan said that to save the tigers, the Sundarbans should be protected from all types of destruction.
He criticised the government initiative to set up a coal-fired power plant at Rampal which is 10-15 km away from the Sundarbans and urged the government to relocate the power plant far away from the world’s largest mangrove forest.
The professor also urged the government to take immediate initiatives to resolve tiger-human conflict.
However, Deputy Conservator of forest (wildlife and eco tourism) Abu Naser Md Yasin Newaz said the government lacked any checking system for vessels passing in and passing out of the Sundarbans forest.
The government did not provide any risk allowance to the officers and workers of the Sundarbans, he lamented
He said that from November 2013, the camera trapping method would be started to conduct tiger census which would remove all confusion over the exact number of tigers in the country.
-With New Age input
