Roundup: Poaching, human interference, threatening rare Bengal tigers in Sundarbans

Bangladeshi environmental and wildlife experts said excessive human interactions, poaching, growing industries in and around the forest and navigation routes inside the mangrove forest, are the major reasons behind the drastic drop in numbers of Bengal tigers in the Sundarbans.

Experts also said a scarcity of food, habitat destruction and indiscriminate killing of tigers are also other major reasons for the sharp population decrease of tigers in the forest.

Bangladesh's Forest Department Survey, with the technical support of the Wildlife Institute of India, in a report titled: " Tiger Abundance in Bangladesh Sundarbans," disclosed that there are only 106 tigers living in Bangladesh.

Issuing a warning in the report, it said that the existing practices centering on the forest would create more threats to the current tiger population in the future.

Monirul H. Khan, an eminent zoologist and a tiger expert, said, "Tiger and spotted deer are poached on a regular basis in the Sundarbans. Spotted Deer is the main food of tigers. So poaching of tigers as well as spotted deer are the main reason for the diminishing number of tigers."

Khan also said, "In 2011, a commercial navigation route was opened inside the forest and various related disastrous incidents are also another reason. Recently, a big oil spill took place on that commercial route and apart from this, uncontrolled human interactions have been taking place there."

The tiger expert also said on average five tigers were killed per year while more than 1,000 spotted deer were killed. Forest Department statistics show that at least 52 tigers were killed in the last 16 years.

"If we see the last three reports, we will find that the number of tigers have decreased gradually. The first reason is poaching. Many bigwigs are involved in the illegal trade of poaching and there remains an international demand. The government cannot stop the poaching," Pavel Partha, an ecologist and Sundarban expert, told Xinhua.

He said, "The second reason is the development activities in and around the forest. There are naval routes inside the forest which create a huge nuisance and pollution; development activities of many multi-national companies which are a severe threat for any forest and commercial shrimp cultivation in the forest is another a big reason."

The report also mentioned that tiger density is negatively correlated with human interference, on the tigers directly or to their habitat.

Such instances are high in the Sundarbans and the poaching of tigers and their prey are a major concern for tiger conservation globally, the Sundarbans being no exception, the report stated. Endi