The Forest Department yesterday officially announced that the number of the country’s iconic Royal Bengal Tiger is 106 in Bangladesh territory of the Sundarbans, as per the Tiger Census of 2015.
According to the Indian findings, there are 76 tigers in the Sundarbans of India that made the total number of tigers 182 in the largest mangrove forest in the world, shared 60 percent by Bangladesh and 40 percent by India.
Bangladesh Sundarbans has tiger occupancy of 4832 square kilometers and estimated population of 83 to 130 tigers with a midpoint of 106. Though the tiger population estimate is much lower than previously believed, it still forms one of the top five largest tiger populations in the world, the Tiger Status Report 2015, prepared by the Forest Department with support of the World Bank, said. This was revealed yesterday at a national workshop titled “Monitoring Tigers prey and their habitats in the Sundarbans” at the Forest Department at Agargaon in the capital.
Environment and Forest Minister Anwar Hossain Manju revealed the tiger report as the chief guest while environment and forest secretary Dr Kamal Uddin Ahmed spoke as the special guest and Chief Conservator of Forest (CCF) Md Yunus Ali was in the chair.
This is the first time the tiger counting was conducted through best modern camera trapping technology using GPS.
The last tiger census was conducting in 2004 using tiger pugmark that found 440 tigers in Bangladesh Sundabans and 350 in India.
“As this time we have used the best modern technology, we can claim this is the correct number of tigers. The 2004 result of 440 tigers may be overestimated due to using only pugmark of tigers,” wildlife conservator Tapan Kubar Dey told BSS.
The survey was conducted between 2014 to early 2015 involving 7500 staff from the forest department and others by dividing the Sundarbans in three blocks – Sharankhola range, Satkhira range and Khulna Range.
Scientist of Wildlife Institute of India Dr Y V Jhala told BSS they have conducted same kind of survey in India at the same time and found the range of tigers 67 to 98 in the territory of Sundarbans.
During inauguration of the workshop, the minister alleged that a local influential group backed by political quarters has been involved in wildlife poaching of the Sundarbans. It’s not easy every time to check poaching and illegal wildlife trade due to their strong network,” he said. The minister urged for creating strong political determination to protect the tigers and their habitat.
The minister also raised the issue of not getting enough funding to protect wildlife. “It’s difficult to get even Taka 100 allocation for wildlife preservation.” he said.
The secretary said, “The number of tigers we got from the census it is the reality. Now we have to take initiative to increase the number of tigers.”
The CCF said adverse effect of climate change and industrialization near the Sundarbans are big threats to protect the tigers. Alleging that there is lack of coordination among the law enforcement agencies to curb poaching and illegal wildlife trade, he suggested giving special training to police force in this regards.
