Tigers Forever: Bangladesh
Sundarbans
By dr.Fourkan Ali
The Bangladesh and Indian Sundarbans, a UNES CO World
Heritage Site, is the largest mangrove forest in the world and has been
identified as a tiger ‘Source Site’. On the Bangladesh side, the Sundarbans is
classified as a Reserved Forest and totals 6,017 km2, of which 4,267 km2 is
terrestrial habitat, and the remainder a network of waterways. The area
includes three wildlife sanctuaries: Sundarbans West, Sundarbans South, and
Sundarbans East. The Sundarbans ecosystem contains perhaps one of the most
unique tiger populations in the world. While the tigers are classified as the
Bengal subspecies, they are considerably smaller and survive in a very unusual
habitat – a mangrove swamp that is flooded by tides twice daily. In this
habitat tigers have been known to rest in trees when the ground below is
flooded.
The Sundarbans is also unique in that more people are killed
by tigers there each year than anywhere else in the world. While people do not
live inside the Sundarbans forests, tens of thousands enter the forest each day
to collect honey and to fish. Tigers kill people as they crouch on the ground
collecting honey or as they paddle their small boats along narrow waterways.
In 2014, Panthera partnered with Wild Team to work with the
Bangladesh Forest Department to protect tigers starting in the West Sanctuary
on the Indian border. First steps include training and equipping forest guards,
introducing SMART , and monitoring tigers and prey. That the sanctuary is a
system of islands presents a unique set of challenges and opportunities, but
because it is accessible only by water and no human access is legally allowed,
it should ultimately be easier to protect.
0 comments:
Post a Comment