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May
24, 2000
Bagerhat,
May 23 (UNB) – In spite of efforts by the government to protect
wildlife in the Sundarbans, tigers in the world’s largest mangrove
forest still remain vulnerable to poaching.
According
to competent sources, the activities of poachers have reached such an
extent that panicked tigers are now coming out of the rugged forest
only to see their early deaths in the hands of villagers.
Witnesses
said villagers in Satkhira district killed three tigers in last three
and a half months as they came out of the forest and walked into the
nearby villages.
There
have been reports that an international gang of poachers has long been
hunting wildlife from eight compartments of three portions of the
“World Heritage Site” in the forest.
Their
illegal hunting goes round-the-clock in the forest, particularly at
Tiger Point, Kachikhali and Katka of East Heritage Site, Hiron Point,
Putni and Island of South Heritage Site and Notabeki, Pushpakathi,
Gyanpara and Mandarbaria of West Heritage Site.
After
killing a tiger, the poachers smuggle out its different organs. Tiger
bones, flesh and fat are used as raw materials in producing herbal
medicines in India, Myanmar, Thailand, China, Japan and some other
countries in Southeast Asia.
The
hide of a tiger reportedly sells at Tk 8-10 lakh in Southeast Asian
countries while its meat at Tk 1.5 lakh and fat at Tk one lakh per kg.
It’s
not that much easy to hunt a tiger as it sounds. Many hunters lost
their lives while poaching tigers in the Sundarbans on various
occasions. Mohammad Khan, 55, was among them.
Khan,
who had poached nearly a dozen of tigers, was killed in an attack by
an injured tiger at Ashirchhela of Chandpai range of the district on
August 2, 1999.
Records
showed that 20 people on an average fell prey to tigers every year
from 1965 to 99. A total of 265 deaths were recorded during the
period.
Quoting
a foreign report, an official at Forest office in Dhaka said the
population of Royal Bengal tigers in the Sundarbans was 459 in 1991.
Of them, 250 were in Satkhira range, 104 in Khulna range and 83 in
Sharankhola of Bagerhat range.
Another
survey, conducted in 1975, showed that there are 300 tigers in the
Sundarbans.
More
statistics released from a meeting of the Global Tiger Forum held in
Dhaka on January 16 this year, there are now 362 tigers in
Bangladesh’s part of the Sundarbans.
But
the meeting regretted that 2-3 tigers on an average lose their lives
in the forest every year due to illegal hunting.
During
the Pakistan period, a total of 38 permits had been issued to hunters
from 1964-71.
After
the country’s independence, the ‘Wildlife Protection Act, 1973’
was enacted to regulate poaching.
But
a section of hunters are still carrying on their illegal activities in
the Sundarbans, defying the government ban.
In
their drives during 1989-92 period, law-enforcers had recovered 23
tiger hides and huge teeth from different parts of the country. But
experts said this is not enough.
They
urged the government to come up with tougher laws to deal with the
poachers.
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