AS per a news report there are now only 120-130 crocodiles population in the rivers and canals in the Sundarbans forest while the number was about 200 in 2004. The situation deserves proper attention, the reptiles must be saved. Bangladesh Forest Department and Centre for Advanced Research in Natural Resources and Management (CARINAM), a wildlife research organization, made the disclosure in a joint survey to ascertain the crocodile population in the Sundarbans. It sharply illustrates the crocodile population in the Sundarbans has declined due to rapid destruction of their breeding grounds and unchecked poaching as per the report published in The New Nation on Saturday. Under this survey, the Global Positioning System (GPS) was used for the first time during the survey to identify the locations of crocodiles which live in there that prolifically indicates a lack of effective policy and surveillance, which is responsible for this piercing decline of crocodiles from Sundarbans.
One of the possible reasons attributed for the decline of crocodiles is that during the late 1950s, 2000-3000 crocodiles were killed under a government order and their skins exported. Human presence and human disturbance and fishing activities in the Sunderbans contributed further demise of the species.
The crocodile population has not been able to recover from the 1950s killings and then the rapid destruction of crocodiles’ breeding grounds and unchecked poaching in rivers and canals brought rapid fall to the stock.
According to the enumeration of 1985, there were as many as 200 crocodiles of saline water species in Sundarban forest and then 30 years passed without any survey when the stock dwindled fast. Its survival now faces yet another shock from Rampal Power Plant. The spilled oil in the Shela river last is feared to have had an adverse effect on the crocodile population in the forest zone.
Strong administrative and management decisions accompanied by practical plan for crocodile recovery are needed. The Forest Department (FD) is the only government agency that can make easier the implementation of such administrative decisions. But there is a shortage of good intentions, skilled and committed manpower for wildlife conservation. Under the Sunderbans Biodiversity Conservation Project (SBCP), setting up a crocodile rearing centre at Karamjal was high on card; but it failed due to lack of logistical support.
We do not need to hire foreign consultants for the project, because we have enough local expertise to work on it. Protecting these endangered reptiles and helping them to breed and survive is essential to keep our ecosystem in balance and make sure the aquatic environment remains clean. Moreover the country may earn substantial foreign exchange through commercial breeding and saving the crocodiles is no less saving the natural heritage of the Sundarbans.
