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Save the Royal Bengal Tiger in Bangladesh
We know the Panthera Tigris, which local name is Royal Bengal Tiger in Bangladesh, are threatened with extinction. Only 4500 to 5000 tigers of this species remain in the whole world, instead of their earlier estimates of nearly 100,000. Within the 5000 of Panthera Tigris in the world, there are 450 to 500 living in Bangladesh. So it is important to conserve this threatened specie in the Bangladesh Sundarbans. But the tiger/ human conflict is a common phenomenon in the Sundarbans and adjacent area. Tigers are killing humans and humans are killing the tigers. In every case when the usually elusive tiger enters into the human habitant, they are killed by the local people.
Please use the sample letter below to take action to save the Royal Bengal Tigers.
Dr. Hasan Mahamud
State Minister,
Ministry of Environment and Forest,
Government of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh
September 6, 2010
Dear Sir,
We know the Panthera Tigris, which local name is Royal Bengal Tiger in Bangladesh, are threatened with extinction. Only 4500 to 5000 tigers of this species remain in the whole world, instead of their earlier estimates of nearly 100,000. Within the 5000 of Panthera Tigris in the world, there are 450 to 500 living in Bangladesh. So it is important to conserve this threatened specie in the Bangladesh Sundarbans. But the tiger/ human conflict is a common phenomenon in the Sundarbans and adjacent area. Tigers are killing humans and humans are killing the tigers. In every case when the usually elusive tiger enters into the human habitant, they are killed by the local people.
Recently a tiger has been disturbing the people in Chunkury Village of Shyamnagar upazila under Satkhira district. That tiger hasentered the locality 6-7 times within 8 days. Last 4 September 2010, it came across the river and stayed within the community boundaries the whole night. Very early in the morning, it returned to the Sundarbans. It had eaten a goat and a dog, and killed another 2 goats. That same tiger came back again to the same village that next night, and took away another dog.
Possibly another tiger killed and ate two goats in Golakhali Village of Ramjanagar at 4th August. This kind of encroachment creates panic for local people. People of this area are so annoyed and terrified. It will be difficult to save this tiger if it returns again. People cannot move about and perform normal work in the evening after 6.30 pm. They have to stay inside their houses from early evening. It is not a fit human life. If the Government does not take any immediate action to implement effective protection measure such as trapping the tiger to send to the Zoo or Safari Park or return to the deep forest, the frustrated local people will take more aggressive action to kill her, even though aware of the new law on tiger conservation.
Because such tiger encounters with human settlements are creating so many problems and can only end badly, we believe that Government must consider effective ways to both protect these villages, while also protecting the tigers from harm. So we believe that relevant Government Authorities must intervene to take immediate appropriate action to save the tiger.
I look forward to learning of your plans to take urgent action.
For the Mangroves And the Mangrove Communities!
Alfredo Quarto,
Executive Director
Mangrove Action Project
mangroveap@olympus.net
CC::
Mihir Kanti Majumder,
Secretary,
Ministry of Environment and Forest,
Tel: +88 02 7160481
Fax: +88 02 7169210
E-mail: secretry@yahoo.com, mihir.bangladesh@yahoo.com
Zafar Ahamed Khan, PhD
Director General,
Department of Environment
Phone: +88 02 9127882
Fax: +88 02 9118682
e-mail: dg@doe-bd.org, drzafar60@gmail.com
Md. Istiaq U. Ahmed
Chief Conservator of Forest
Tel: +88 02 8118671
Fax: +88 02 8119453
E-mail: ccf-fd@bforest.gov.bd, cf-wnc@bforest.gov.bd
