News Archive

Nature and Wildlife





Only days to go until local communication campaign launch

On 17 February, the CEPA team’s five year long Sundarban mayer moton (Motherlike Sundarbans) campaign will be officially launched. The launching ceremony will take in the playground of the University of Khulna. Day long activities of the event will include a colourful rally, a painting contest and exhibition by local children and musical program featuring local and national artists. The event will be a common platform for everyone who loves tigers and the Sundarbans. STP invites everyone to be a part of this celebration!





Knowing Sumatran Tigers

A veterinary training on ‘Conflict Tigers: Health and Handling’ was held in Bogor, Indonesia from 10 to 13 January 2012. Dr. Mahbubul Alam from the Research and Monitoring Team attended this training programme. Mahbub received training on wild tiger anaesthesia, rescue, rehabilitation, euthanasia, sample collection, clinical pathology, blow pipe operation and disease surveillance. He also gave a presentation on ‘Understanding and Mitigating THC in Bangladesh’. Dr. John Lewis from Wildlife Vet International, Dr. Taina Strike from Zoological Society of London and Dr. Retno Sudarwati from Taman Safari Indonesia were among the trainers. It was certainly a rewarding experience for Mahbub.





Brave tiger protector’s tragic death in Tengrakhali

Md. Kawsar Morol, the leader of the Tengrakhali Village Tiger Response Team (VTRT) passed away in a tragic accident on Tuesday, 31 January. While inside the Shatkhira range of Sundarbans, a sudden tiger attack caused him to lose his life instantly.



Kawsar,known as ‘Kawsar Chacha’ among WTB members, had been a dedicated member of the VTRT for two years. His remarkable courage had shone through in many occasions. Most memorably, last year he led the team which dealt with a stray tiger in Mirgang. After four hours of hard work his team successfully guided the tiger back inside the forest.

He dedicated himself to work for tigers, in a region often hostile towards these animals. He undertook this challenge because he felt a deep bond with the Sundarbans. It is a tragedy indeed, that in the end, he was killed by the very thing he worked so hard to protect.

The WTB family is deeply shocked and saddened by his untimely death. We remember his valiance and his great contribution towards tiger conservation with pride and gratitude. We stand together with his bereaved family in this time of grief, and share their sorrow.



Second successful immobilization of a stray tiger from a village

On 14th January, at 6:30 pm news arrived that a tiger had entered the village named Angtihara. The village is a part of Khashitana camp, within the Khulna range of Sundarbans Reserve Forest.

Bangladesh Forest Department took instant steps together with Sundarbans Tiger Project (STP) of Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh (WTB) and formulated a plan to control the situation. A team comprising of Forest Department officials and STP members were dispatched to the village within hours of the news being received. With the help of the Chairman, members of the Union Council and the local Village Tiger Response Team (VTRT) led by Goni, the villagers were kept at a safe distance from the tiger. Ashraful Haque, the leader of STP’s VTRT development activities, added “Controlling a mob of hundreds or thousands of villagers is one of the hardest tasks to achieve in this type of operation, but our last 3 years of work is starting to change the attitudes on the local people to be more supportive”.



Around 9 pm, after a meeting with the DFO of Khulna range it was decided that an immobilizing team from STP needed to reach the scene as well. The joint Forest Department and STP team arrived at the village at midnight. Without any damage to the tiger or to any villagers the tiger was anaesthetized by Abu Naser Mohsin Hossain, ACF, Forest Department at 6:30 am on 15th January. Over the past few years, Hossain has received much training from STP on tiger immobilization in both Thailand and in Bangladesh. Professor Md. Anwarul Islam, CEO of WTB and coordinator of STP said “Naser has proved to be a talented individual within the Forest Department. He was absolutely the right person for the job and we are proud of his achievement.” Naser Hossain adds, "The Wildlife and Nature Conservation Circle of the Forest Department is in the process of building a specialist tiger management unit with help from STP. The upcoming World Bank project will also add to this process. A plan must also be put in place to ensure that this specialist unit continues beyond the end of any projects."

Within half an hour of the mobilization, the tiger had been brought back to Kolagachia Camp safely. There the weight, temperature and vitals of the tiger were carefully checked. It was observed that the tiger had only three legs and was extremely weak. Professor Md. Anwarul Islam explained that “The loss of the rear hind leg up to the knee is likely due to poacher’s snare, and given the age of the injury it seems to have happened sometime within the last few weeks.” Within 10:30 am the tiger had regained full consciousness and was alert.
Decisions regarding the fate of the tiger have not yet been finalized. The options include: return to the forest, mercy killing also known as euthanasia for welfare purposes, or it could be sent to a captive animal centre such as Dulahazra Safari Park.

“Such decisions cannot be taken lightly” said Professor Md. Anwarul Islam who works closely with conflict tiger specialists from around the world, “The decision to return any tiger to the forest needs take into consideration the health of the tiger – it should only be returned if it is able to hunt natural prey successfully. In addition, ways to monitor the tiger once back in the forest need to be in place including the use of tracking collars and the presence of a team capable of doing this monitoring 24 hours per day so that further conflict incidents can be avoided. We’ve waited too long to use collars and this waiting has resulted in dead people, tigers, and livestock..” If the tiger cannot be returned to the forest, then the ability of captive accommodation options to meet international animal welfare standards need to be assessed. Rubaiya Ahmad, Director of Obhoyaronno (Bangladesh Animal Welfare Society), adds, “Given the miserable condition of our nation’s zoos and safari parks, this would be an extremely unethical choice and against animal welfare standards. An adult tiger used to a solitary existence in the wild would find conditions in Bangladesh’s current facilities intolerable. Besides, there simply is no space for an additional 2 to 3 tigers every year."

In Bangladesh, this is the second time that a tiger has been immobilized and removed from a village successfully avoiding a brutal killing of the tiger by villagers and reducing chance of human injury. The first incident was on 19th February, 2011; a stray tiger was saved from Harinagar village of Shyamnagar Upazila in Satkhira district by being immobilised, before being released into the forest by a Forest Department and STP team.

The strayed tiger was sent back to jungle successfully. Our Alam and Tanvir was there. They formed three teams and with a combined effort, the teams managed to send the tiger back to jungle.

Another tiger entered Lowdobe village area in Chandpai range today. The local village tiger response teams and STP team members successfully drove it back into the forest.

These are massive steps for the country and were possible because of the helpful attitudes of the villagers and village elites, and the coordinated activities of the Sundarbans Tiger Project and Bangladesh Forest Department.


Ananya Rubayat
Dhaka
sundarbanstigerproject@gmail.com

Attention: The Noazesh Knowledge Centre (NKC) welcomes all to be its member.
Membership is free!
The centre remains open from 10 am to 9 pm, Monday to Saturday.

1. WANT TO WORK IN TIGER CONSERVATION?

The Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh (WTB) is looking to recruit staff in Bangladesh to help them develop their nature conservation efforts. WTB is a non-profit NGO dedicated to the conservation of the biodiversity of Bangladesh. WTB will recruit several energetic and highly self-driven people to work in full time roles on their tiger conservation programme. Being passionate about nature conservation, the successful applicants will make it their lives’ work to conserve tigers, Sundarbans, and other biodiversity in Bangladesh. Positions are for a min. 2 year contract including on-the-job training and four-month probationary period. Start dates are position specific and are given alongside each position below.

Applicants must have excellent Bangla and English written and verbal skills, and literacy in common Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, Powerpoint). Interest in conservation and climate issues a must. All applicants must be team players. Graduate applicants welcome, although must be exceptional self starter with proven ability to complete projects. The following positions are available:

APPLICATION DEADLINE OF 15 APRIL 2011 HAS NOW PASSED. Applicants are now being shortlisted for interview. Only successful candidates will be contacted.


2. Brainstorming session for tiger conservation

The dates March 13 to 17 remind us of last year when we had a five-day workshop on a boat cruising around the Sundarbans. Co-incidentally this year and on the same dates, we again had a workshop but this time in the Lawachara National Park in Moulavibazar. The workshop was an internal gathering of all our team members to design our next five years’ actions against the top three threats to tigers and the Sundarbans.

Over the last year we refined our list of threats and the target groups responsible for the highest impact threats. Accordingly we conducted a survey among the selected target groups (called a Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) survey) to find out the reasons why these people do these threatening behaviors (see more below in the “Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) – results of the reality” news item). Now, taking all these findings along with us, we gathered together in the Lawachara forest bungalow for five days to brainstorm about how to tackle these issues, and how to best utilize our team’s capacity and time over the coming 5 years. The workshop was facilitated by one of our members, Iqbal Hussain.

Retaliatory killing of stray tigers, deer poaching and poison fishing (which refers to the practice of dissolving pesticide in the water to catch fish in the Sundarbans) are the three major threatening issues affecting Sundarbans and tigers.



We had some interesting brainstorming sessions, in which we discovered more precise objectives and intervention ideas to achieve our vision. The key issues and the harsh reality of the Sundarbans helped us to setup the overall path way to achieve our destination. We took consideration from all the sessions and ideas we generated to make our project’s SWOT analysis which disclosed our current situation and how we can achieve our goals over the coming 5 years. After all the efforts done during the workshop we realized that it is tough but not impossible to build a sustainable Sundarbans for the long run, we just need that good period of time to make the change.

We all safely returned to Dhaka on the evening of the 17th March and now we are looking forward to implement what we discovered in the successful workshop.

3. Inauguration of conservation library

On March 12, 2011 Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh (WTB) and Zoological Society of London (ZSL) together inaugurated Noazesh Knowledge Centre (NKC), the country’s first ever knowledge centre on nature conservation at WTB office in Malibagh, Dhaka.
It is named after the late nature photographer, Dr. Noazesh Ahmed, one of the founding trustees and vice chairman of WTB, who always dreamt about forming a knowledge centre like this.

Chief Guest of the inauguration ceremony, Professor Gowher Rizvi, Advisor and Special Representative of the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, inaugurated the event. Guests of Honor in the inauguration ceremony included His Excellency Mr. Svend Olling, Danish Ambassador to Bangladesh, Dr. Tapan Kumar Dey, Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), Bangladesh Forest Department, Mr. Asaduzzaman Noor, Member of Parliament (MP) and Managing Director of Desh TV and Mr. Enayetullah Khan, Chairman of WTB.

WTB and ZSL have formed this knowledge centre with a view to create a generation of young, knowledgeable citizens in the field of biodiversity conservation. The two partners hope this centre will help progress nature conservation.



Visitors will have access to a wide variety of e-journals, conservation research papers and text books to educate themselves about biodiversity and the innovative conservation measures that are taking place across the world. The knowledge centre will also hold discussion sessions and film shows about nature conservation regularly to make the knowledge centre more interactive and help develop informed opinion in the younger generation.

This centre is open to people of all ages and professions. That means you and your friends are all invited to NKC! Interestingly our first visitor has been a Grade 5 student doing a school’s project on biodiversity conservation. We were really impressed to see how inquisitive and organized our little member was - he had even drawn a set of really intelligent questions to interview us and find out about our work!

4. Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) – the reality

Last year we said we were conducting a survey among some selected target groups to assess their Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) about tigers and the Sundarbans in the four divisional cities of Bangladesh and in the 8 upazilas adjacent to the Sundarbans. This time we will share the results of the survey.

The survey consisted of Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) for the Sundarbans communities and structured questionnaires for the national audience.

The national survey results showed that the majority of the respondents thought they had knowledge about environment, wildlife, biodiversity and so on but their definition of environment or their concept of environmentally-friendly was very different to ours. For example, by the term “environment” respondents understood that it means their family and household and their definitions of this term were nowhere near nature. It was good to see that more than 90% of the respondents thought tigers were important and knew that the largest forest in Bangladesh is the Sundarbans.

However, when asked about the number of wild tigers in the world, some respondents thought there were millions of them! In addition to this, they identified logging as the major threat affecting the Sundarbans.

The focus group discussion done in the Sundarbans showed glimpses of hope, like that people think that Sundarbans is protecting them and that tigers are protecting the Sundarbans, so if tigers disappear than Sundarbns will also disappear. They also added that if all the beneficiaries of Sundarbans become aware and do their duties properly then it is possible to conserve Sundarbans and tigers. They also fear entering the forest. But there were some alarming signs also: many people believe that deer meet is the “raj mangsho” - royal meat. This is a threat to tigers because deer is the main prey of tigers. Regarding poison fishing (which refers to the practice of dissolving pesticide in the water to catch fish in the Sundarbans) one respondent expressed the need of more money by saying “extra money is extra money”.

This survey regarding Sundarbans and tigers really gave us some valuable insight to people’s knowledge and perception levels and helped us to formulate our awareness messages and other interventions in our Lawachara workshop (see above), and give us a great chance of success in our mission to save tigers, their food, and their forest home.

Tasnim Shawon
Dhaka
sundarbanstigerproject@gmail.com

News Archive

Nature and Wildlife

Tiger News


1) Immobilising a stray tiger
2) Princess Anne with the Tiger Team
3) In the tiger’s den
4) The search goes on
5) All for the tigers
6) Job opportunities at Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh (WTB)

BREAKING NEWS: Stray tiger immobilised and released safely into the forest

As this is indeed hot news for the whole country, we just couldn't wait to share this with our members and well wishers!

For the first time in Bangladesh, a stray tiger was saved from a cruel fate at the hands of villagers by being immobilised, before being released into the forest by a Forest Department and Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh (WTB) team on Sunday night.

The incident occurred in Harinagar village of Shyamnagar Upazila in Satkhira district.
The villagers saw the tiger swimming across the canal towards their village on Saturday. They immediately called the Village Tiger Response Team (VTRT, formed and trained earlier by the Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh) and Hafiz of Kadomtala VTRT gathered his team.

Hafiz then called Osman Goni of the Forest Tiger Response Team (FTRT), who then called Alam Hawlader and others of the Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh.

Meanwhile the news of the distressed tiger spread quickly among the villagers, and by 9:30 pm the crowd had surrounded the tiger.

The tiger was hit with a stick on its head. One of its eyes was injured. Three people were also injured. It was only when more Forest Department staff, Border Guards (BGB) and police arrived at the spot that the crowd came under control.

Fortunately the Kadamtola Station was equipped with the necessary equipment for immobilizing tigers, provided by the Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh last year.
Hearing the news, Abu Naser Hossain, Assistant Conservator of Forests (ACF), immediately obtained verbal permission from the authorities to immobilize the tiger.

The ACF and Forest Department field staff with assistance from the Village Tiger Response Teams (VTRTs) and other WTB members successfully immobilized the tiger and released it into the forest.



Abu Naser M Hossain and Towfiqul Islam, ACFs of the Forest Department; and Dr Adam Barlow, Christina Greenwood, Mary Greenwood, Mijanur Rahman, Alam Hawlader, Osman Goni and Tanvir Kha of the Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh, and the Zoological Society of London, were among others who led the whole exercise.
It was an old tigress weighing about 80 kg, aged around 12 years. Two of her canine teeth were badly broken and the rest were worn with age.

The Village Tiger Response Team (VTRT) succeeded in controlling the crowd. The Forest Department and WTB team immobilized the tigress at about 1:40 am on the 20th, and instantly carried it to the boat. They then went down to the Dubeki Guard Post, 2 hours drive from the spot, south of the Sundarbans.

She recovered on the WTB’s wooden boat, although there was sufficient room for her to move freely inside the cabin. The temperature on the night was quite cool, and she recovered slowly from the effects of the anaesthetic. Her temperature, breathing, etc were continuously monitored by Dr Adam Barlow and others on the boat to make sure that she was in a stable state.

She woke up the next day, ate four chickens, and drank lots of water as she recovered her full strength. When she was feeling sufficiently strong, and the tide was at a safe level, the team released her into her natural habitat by opening the cabin door. She then jumped from the boat on to the muddy bank, and disappeared back into her natural habitat. This was around 10.25pm on February 20.

Remarking on the importance of immobilisation, Abu Naser, the ACF said: “We overcame a dangerous situation with great teamwork. By using these modern wildlife management techniques, we can save more people and tigers in the future”.

Last year, WTB had also provided immobilisation training to 30 field level staff of the Forest Department by inviting Dr John Lewis of the Wildlife Vets International to conduct the programme. The training had covered methods of capturing and immobilising wildlife.

We only hope that this success has built the trust of the Forest Department in people; they will now know that killing a tiger is not the only solution. Saving tigers required a joint initiative between the community, the government and NGOs.

Princess Anne with the Tiger Team

We were really excited to have Princess Anne as our guest at Burigoalini village of Shyamnagar upazila in Satkhira district. She spent around half an hour talking enthusiastically to members of our Village Tiger Response Teams (VTRTs).

The discussion began at 12:30 pm with the Princess asking a number of questions such as the status of tigers in the Sundarbans, the impact that tigers’ disappearance would have on the forest and the role Sundarbans played in people’s lives. Members of WTB and ZSL and Forest Department officials replied to her questions. Gradually the conversation moved on to the recent news of a stray tiger’s immobilisation that had taken place in Harinagar village of the same upazila.

Photo credit: British High Commission


Speaking to the VTRTs and Forest Tiger Response teams, Princess Anne showed an avid interest in their work and the risks involved in their work. The response team members, on the other hand, felt excited and proud on getting the opportunity to speak to the Princess of UK! The Princess’s visit and conversation greatly motivated the teams made up from local villagers offering community services as volunteers.

On the same day back in Dhaka, the Princess again met the "Ride of the Tiger" team which is holding a number of events to raise funds for tiger conversation. The campaigners, Keith Mullan, Chris Roy, Max Baldwin, Sajid Chowdhury and Henry Churchill, enjoyed the privilege of dining with the Princess at the British High Commission in Dhaka.

In the tiger’s den

The Sundarbans Tiger Project has just started to assess the relative tiger abundance in the Sundarbans. The abundance survey is a Sundarbans wide survey of tiger track frequency. This will help us to know about the current Bangladesh Sundarbans tiger population.

The survey team will spend two months crossing the whole Sundarbans area, counting tiger tracks along the banks of the narrow waterways (known locally as khals). The number of tiger tracks found per kilometre of khal will then be used as an index of tiger density in each area, with the assumption that more tiger tracks means more tigers. This tiger population survey is repeated every two years so we can keep an eye on the population over time.




The first survey was carried out in 2007 and the findings published in the international journal Biological Conservation. The second survey was carried out in 2009, which found that the tiger population had remained relatively stable between 2007 and 2009. Naser Hossain, Assistant Conservator of Forest (ACF), Forest Department, who is leading the 2011 survey has also done a study in 2010 to further refine the survey. The results of his study have also been incorporated in the 2011 survey.

Bunch of new volunteers is working with the tiger team this time to explore the mysterious Sundarbans. They will focus on the abundance of tigers in the Sundarbans and spending adventurous time in the boat roaming in the khals. We will publish the highlights of the results once the survey is over.

The search goes on

Are there any tigers left in the hill tracts of Chittagong??

The search goes on, led by our STP researcher Suprio Chakma. His first extensive sign survey started in February 2010 and lasting 5 months showed no tiger tracks, and he is now embarking on the second phase which is using camera trapping technology. This phase of the survey will start from end of February and will take two months to complete.



Suprio will first train some volunteers on how to use the camera trap. The team will then move deep into the hilly jungles of Bangladesh. Suprio decided he will start his journey from the Bandarban which sits near the border of Myanmar with Bangladesh.

We expect that his research will unfold the mystery regarding tiger presence in the
hills. Through the earlier phase of his research he has already discovered some great wildlife in the hills of Bangladesh. Hopefully he will find light at the end of the tunnel.

All for the tigers

By now you all probably know about the campaign “Ride of the Tiger” – organised by a team of expatriates to deliver the message of tiger conservation in Bangladesh and to raise donations for this noble cause.

As scheduled on 17th February the first event of this campaign was the party called “Welcome to the Jungle”. It was held in “Bagha Club” (Gulshan) Dhaka and as the clock ticked 9 pm, everyone rushed to the dance floor. More than 320 expatriates and Bangladeshis rocked the party. With their faces painted in different colours the party group was wearing fancy dresses and resembled the jungle night. The dance floor shook with live music and tunes of DJ till past midnight. The night became all the more memorable as it also raised a bundle of a donation - 10,50,000 taka for the tigers.



However, the campaign is it not over with the party!! No it is only the beginning.

On 21st February the campaigners organized a football tournament at American International School Dhaka containing 10 energetic teams with 4 round robin league matches. We, the STP tiger team, also participated to dribble in the field. Though we were cool players, we conceded 12 big goals with 1 own goal!! The match took a turn with the grand finale between Ride of the Tiger cycle team and New D.O.H.S. football team. With crunchy snacks, all the other team members and spectators observed the nail biting finish of the final match with penalty shootouts, as the match ended as 1 all draw and “Ride of the tiger team” netted 3 against “New D.O.H.S” who netted 2. This tournament raised an additional 30,000 taka for tiger conservation.

With the tournament ended, we are now counting our days for the next phase of the campaign when Henry with his four expeditors will jump on the road of Dhaka-Kolkata with their cycling pants with the aim of spreading the message of conserving our Bengal Tiger.

Tasnim Alam Shawon
sundarbanstigerproject@gmail.com
Dhaka

News Archive

Nature and Wildlife

Tiger News


BREAKING NEWS: Stray tiger immobilised and released safely into the forest

As this is indeed hot news for the whole country, we just couldn't wait to share this with our members and well wishers!

For the first time in Bangladesh, a stray tiger was saved from a cruel fate at the hands of villagers by being immobilised, before being released into the forest by a Forest Department and Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh (WTB) team on Sunday night.

The incident occurred in Harinagar village of Shyamnagar Upazila in Satkhira district.
The villagers saw the tiger swimming across the canal towards their village on Saturday. They immediately called the Village Tiger Response Team (VTRT, formed and trained earlier by the Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh) and Hafiz of Kadomtala VTRT gathered his team.

Hafiz then called Osman Goni of the Forest Tiger Response Team (FTRT), who then called Alam Hawlader and others of the Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh.

Meanwhile the news of the distressed tiger spread quickly among the villagers, and by 9:30 pm the crowd had surrounded the tiger.

The tiger was hit with a stick on its head. One of its eyes was injured. Three people were also injured. It was only when more Forest Department staff, Border Guards (BGB) and police arrived at the spot that the crowd came under control.

Fortunately the Kadamtola Station was equipped with the necessary equipment for immobilizing tigers, provided by the Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh last year.
Hearing the news, Abu Naser Hossain, Assistant Conservator of Forests (ACF), immediately obtained verbal permission from the authorities to immobilize the tiger.

The ACF and Forest Department field staff with assistance from the Village Tiger Response Teams (VTRTs) and other WTB members successfully immobilized the tiger and released it into the forest.



Abu Naser M Hossain and Towfiqul Islam, ACFs of the Forest Department; and Dr Adam Barlow, Christina Greenwood, Mary Greenwood, Mijanur Rahman, Alam Hawlader, Osman Goni and Tanvir Kha of the Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh, and the Zoological Society of London, were among others who led the whole exercise.
It was an old tigress weighing about 80 kg, aged around 12 years. Two of her canine teeth were badly broken and the rest were worn with age.

The Village Tiger Response Team (VTRT) succeeded in controlling the crowd. The Forest Department and WTB team immobilized the tigress at about 1:40 am on the 20th, and instantly carried it to the boat. They then went down to the Dubeki Guard Post, 2 hours drive from the spot, south of the Sundarbans.

She recovered on the WTB’s wooden boat, although there was sufficient room for her to move freely inside the cabin. The temperature on the night was quite cool, and she recovered slowly from the effects of the anaesthetic. Her temperature, breathing, etc were continuously monitored by Dr Adam Barlow and others on the boat to make sure that she was in a stable state.

She woke up the next day, ate four full chickens, and drank lots of water as she recovered her full strength. When she was feeling sufficiently strong, and the tide was at a safe level, the team released her into her natural habitat by opening the cabin door. She then jumped from the boat on to the muddy bank, and disappeared back into her natural habitat. This was around 10.25pm on February 20.

Remarking on the importance of immobilisation, Abu Naser, the ACF said: “We overcame a dangerous situation with great teamwork. By using these modern wildlife management techniques, we can save more people and tigers in the future”.

Last year, WTB had also provided immobilisation training to 30 field level staff of the Forest Department by inviting Dr John Lewis of the Wildlife Vets International to conduct the programme. The training had covered methods of capturing and immobilising wildlife.

We only hope that this success has built the trust of the Forest Department in people; they will now know that killing a tiger is not the only solution. Saving tigers required a joint initiative between the community, the government and NGOs.

Cycling for a cause

If you happen to be a Facebook user, then you may have noticed that there is a buzz in the air about an exciting campaign “Ride of the tiger”; launched in January this year by a team of expatriates Massimo Franco, Chris Roy, Keith Mullan, Max Baldwin and Sajid Chowdhury. These expatriates are all from different professions and as part of this ongoing campaign they will meet together to participate in a five-day long cycle ride that will take them from Dhaka to Kolkata, leaving on 25 March, arriving in Kolkata on the 28th.

Henry Churchill, one of our STP members, just couldn’t hold himself back with all this campaign gearing up and bubbling with life – forgetting his weak nerves (he has just recovered from illness) and his old age (that’s what he indicated on the Facebook wall!); he went headlong and registered his name for the cycling expedition.



So what’s the motivation behind this laborious mission?

With the help of this campaign the group plans to raise funds and donate them to us, the Sundarbans Tiger Project, to help save Bangladesh’s tigers! Besides this cycling tour, the “Ride of the tiger” campaign consists of some side events like football tournaments, rickshaw rides by expatriates and documentary film shows, fund raising dinner party scheduled throughout February and March. If you haven’t heard about it already, look up “Ride of the tiger” on Facebook and you will find a range of events to attend and support the good cause!

Securing the snake’s future

Whilst this isn’t a tiger related story, it is newsworthy so we wanted to include it in this month’s update.

Back in December last year, all of a sudden, a newspaper report gave us a real fright. The report said that the Ministry of Fishery and Livestock was thinking of establishing commercial snake farms because apparently a few prospective entrepreneurs were under the delusion that they would be able to make millions of taka (!) by raising snakes in commercial farms and using them to produce and export venom. These businessmen had the impression that even our neighbouring country India was making huge revenues by producing and exporting snake venom. Hearing this, no wonder the concerned Minister and Secretary grew interested and primarily assented to the proposal. However, fortunately for us, the Ministry wanted to sit with some experts to discuss the feasibility of this venture and subsequently a meeting was held on the 2nd January, 2011.

It needs to be mentioned here that wildlife farming, of which one example is this snake farming, is of no advantage to the wildlife at least and only threatens their wild population even more. Already we have lost and are still losing a significant amount of our biodiversity regularly and on top of this, farming ventures would only deteriorate the dwindling populations of wildlife, be that snake, deer or any other wild animal. Therefore, we at Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh (WTB) were anxious about the outcome of the meeting.

Our CEO, Prof. Md. Anwarul Islam wasted no time in consulting experts, both local and international, particularly the Indian herpetologists for their assessment of this project. A stream of assessments came flooding in, the most noteworthy among which explained that India does not export venom; only a couple of Government entities are allowed to extract venom from snakes, which are later released back into the wild. The extracted venom is strictly used nationally for producing anti venoms. It is these anti venoms that India export but certainly not to the extent as to make “millions of Rupees” worth of revenue.

With these pieces of information in hand, our CEO faced the Ministry meeting and could explain the Secretary that commercial snake farming would not at all be a viable project, not to mention the threats it would have on the wild population of our snakes. It was news indeed for the Minister, the Secretary and other senior officials present there when they heard that India doesn’t export venom. Prof. Islam requested the government to rather start a dialogue with India so that there could be a regional centre for snake venom and anti venom production. This could be a scientific venture for social good, not a commercial profit-making business. Both Bangladesh and North East India will benefit from this collaborative venture. The Ministry meeting had apparently accepted this. It was also discussed that no private parties would be given permission to start snake farms in the country.

If only our wild snakes knew what disaster was awaiting them and how closely they escaped, they would have let out a big sigh of relief!

A little bit of team building

The WTB team was very early at their office on Saturday the 29th January. A medium sized coach was waiting outside. Malibagh hadn’t risen to its chaos yet. Nevertheless our office building was open despite being a holiday. It wasn’t that our office hours had changed – the event that had dragged us out of our cosy beds and had us charged up on a late winter morning was a PICNIC – a break from the noisy, dusty Malibagh for a whiff of fresh air at the nearest countryside in Kolakopa, Nawabganj. Packing our gears we boarded the coach awaiting us and left for our destination.

Our bus conductor was unusually attractive, unusually funny in his accent and charged us unusually low for a distance of approximately 30 km. All in all he was too much of a foreigner to be a bus conductor of Dhaka city! The conductor was Travis. Australian though he is he has learnt the Bangladeshis’ art of charging more when they see a foreigner. That is why he had actually doubled the fare for poor Henry!



After a journey of two hours or so, we reached Kolakopa and settled at one Ansar camp located by the Isamoti River. One reason we selected this spot for our picnic was because we heard there were a lot of ancient ruins (much like the castles in the West) in that place. Thankfully we were not disappointed – there were indeed many old, palaces that lay in ruins. After exploring the ruins, we turned to sports. While the girls played badminton and darts (and Iqbal joined them because he was too heavy for football), the boys had a game of football, in which there was no sign of any promising player and in which Mayeen’s team lost by 2-3 goals. The game of volley ball was purely male-dominated with seven males and one female, Samia, struggling to flatten her counterparts.

Our earnest thanks go to Hasan, Mala and our CEO, Prof. Md. Anwarul Islam who together cooked lunch for us, otherwise we would have had to cut onions instead of chasing a ball.

After lunch, we hired a boat for river cruise. We held a small cultural show on the boat in which Adam and Christina emerged as rising lyricists and music composers – they had written a song on account of Travis’s farewell and gave music to it. While Travis played the guitar, Henry added life to the music with his dance! Henry has really proven to be an all rounder (despite his old age)– name an activity and he is onto it first – from eating to sleeping to fainting to getting well again to hiking to biking to singing to playing guitar to dancing to…………….will let you know the rest in another update.

Finally it was time for home. I was expecting that after the intense game of physical labour our team would sink to sleep on the bus. The very opposite happened - all of us broke into songs (an unmelodious chorus by the way) and laughter (that was good). It seemed like we had all taken good dosages of energy drinks to give us the strength to bellow and roar in the bus. We were happy to see that our dear, old traffic jam was there to welcome us and make us sit for an hour out of hospitality!

You may also take a look at our blog that gets published on the ZSL website. Please click Link

Nazneen Ahmed
Dhaka
sundarbanstigerproject@gmail.com

VTRT shows commitment again

Our Village Tiger Response Teams (VTRTs), formed with local men to tackle human-tiger conflict, have proven worthy again.

On the 10th December 2010, a tiger suddenly appeared in the village of Uttar Rajapur in Sarankhola. It killed a cow and returned to the forest. Uttar Rajapur is not a place where tiger attacks are common and villagers are not used to such tiger-visits. As a result this incident created panic among the community and made them think that the tiger would return again for its meal.

However, with the VTRT of the village Dashervarani around, the Sarankhola villagers need not have feared. The Dashervarani VTRT members communicated with the local Forest Department (FD) offices and together began patrolling the area that night. They also asked the religious leader of a local mosque to make caution announcements repeatedly over the microphone of that mosque. Through the announcement the religious leader requested the villagers to stay calm and alert. Fortunately the tiger did not return into the village afterwards.

The cooperative roles played by the VTRT and FD signify that both the groups are becoming increasingly aware of the tiger-loss through retaliatory killings by villagers. Every time a VTRT succeeds in controlling agitated crowds and patrolling, it saves the life of another tiger. It may appear to be a small task, but in terms of significance it is really a great achievement.

Mohammad Dulal Chaprashi (team leader of the Dashervarani VTRT) explained the reason behind his team’s motivation to help tigers, “Saving tigers means saving Sundarbans and saving Sundarbans means our livelihoods will be secured too.”

We also give credit to WTB members, Ashraful Haque, Alam Howlader, Mizanur Rahman, Khairul Alam who actively formed these VTRTs despite facing many obstacles.

KAP survey continues

The Knowledge, Attitude and Practise (KAP) survey that we started last year in July is in its last phase now. After completing the Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), we are now conducting questionnaire-based interviews among the urban dwellers of four divisional cities of Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna and Barisal.



Simultaneously we also conducted in-depth interviews in Mirgang, Kalabogi, Sarankhola and Chandpai – one village per each of the four forest ranges. During the course of that fieldwork we spoke to deer poachers, deer meat consumers and poison fishers in each village and asked them questions about what drives them to do those particular things.

We really learned a lot about the lives of these groups of people, and that the main motivation for most people to go into the jungle and perform some illegal activity is, of course, money… to feed themselves, their families, repaying NGO loans, and to pay for ‘cases’ – the result of getting caught and arrested, which involves having to travel to Khulna to appear in court.

After our analysis is complete, we will develop interventions to provide sustainable alternatives to those threatening behaviours and, if necessary, develop regulation recommendations.

UNDP discussion on wildlife farming

Following the Government’s recent decisions to allow the farming of spotted deer, snakes and trade in wildlife products, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) organized a meeting on the 9th December 2010 with some eminent conservationists, businessmen and university professors to discuss the pros and cons of wildlife farming and trade. WTB and ZSL gave a presentation expressing their views on the subject. The UNDP has drawn a set of recommendations from the meeting and will be presenting them to the Bangladesh Forest Department to help them decide the future of wildlife farming and trade.

The meeting was held at the UNDP’s Dhaka office and among the participants were Dr. Tapan Kumar Dey, Conservator of Forests (CF), Mr M. Solaiman Haider, Deputy Director, Department of Environment (DoE), Dr. Niaz Ahmed Khan, IUCN Country Representative, Mr. Mushtaq Ahmed, Managing Director of Reptiles Farm Ltd and
Dr. S. M. A. Rashid, Chief Executive, Centre for Advanced Research in Natural Resources & Management (CARINAM). Mr Mamunul H. Khan, Programme Analyst of UNDP facilitated the meeting.

You may also take a look at our blog that gets published on the ZSL website. Please click Link

Nazneen Ahmed
Dhaka
sundarbanstigerproject@gmail.com

Experiencing the Rash Mela

Some of our team members, Iqbal Hussain, Henry Churchill, Travis Child, Rezvin Akter, Samia Saif and Alam Howlader went down to Dublar Char, a remote island in the Bay of Bengal, to experience the annual Rash Mela held annually there. We had heard that every year during this fair a large number of deer are poached, so we planned this trip to check out the truth.

After a long journey by bus and boat of about 20 hours they finally reached the spot. There are mixed opinions about the fair: some say it is a Hindu religious festival while others say that it is just a cultural programme meant to be a type of recreation for the lonely fishermen who have to stay there without their families. About 10,000 local fishermen come to Dublar char every year for 5 months without their wives and families to catch and dry fish, day in and day out. Tourists consisted of mostly students and businessmen. Our team had casual interviews with some tourists, Hindus and local fishermen to find out the significance of the fair, how it started, why it started, and why they come. Incidentally they also got to see Major Zia, a controversial figure in the Sundarbans with his splendid guest house. They were shown into the V.I.P. seating, a few rows back from Major Zia, to watch classical music and dancing performances on the second night and ate some strange sweets that was sweet alright but difficult to gulp down!



However, there were no signs of deer meat. Apparently law enforcement has become increasingly strict and it is more difficult these days to distribute deer meat than previously. We didn’t observe any signs of deer poaching or trade or deer meat consumption. On the other hand, what was noteworthy was the presence of the Forest Department and of RAB – Rapid Action Battalion. They were there to ensure that boats had legitimate permission to be in the Sundarbans, and also to provide crowd control assistance – which was thankfully not required. It was good to see them also joining in the festivities, on one night even broadcasting pop music from a loudspeaker from their boat.

Amid all these festivities the team also took some time out to explore some creeks and found tiger pugmarks – a breeding pair, explained Alam, our wildlife technician. That afternoon they were also entertained for a couple of hours by the funny sight of an otter scurrying around in search of food and looking at the boat with curious, round eyes. At one point it entered the forest and again reappeared after a while with two of its friends as if to show them this strange, fish-like object (our boat!) floating on the water.

On the way back to Dhaka the team visited Hiron Point, a local tourist spot. Here, the team again found tiger pugmarks and reports of a tiger that had been resting on a causeway on the first day of Eid – a Muslim religious festival.

It’s comforting to see that tigers have also been partaking in these two major religious festivals!

A visit by ZSL

In November Ms. Sarah Christie, Conservation Programmes Manager of Southeast Asia and Prof. Jonathan Baillie, Conservation Programmes Director from Zoological Society of London (ZSL) had their first experience of Bangladesh. The eight days that they spent here went away in a flash.

Our project managers, Chris and Adam, took the guests to the Sundarbans – the forest of which they had heard much and whose conservation they were supporting from abroad, but which they had never seen before. Therefore, it was time for us to give them their due visit.



A lot of programmes were waiting for them on their return from the forest. They had meetings with Dr. Mihir Kanti Majumdar, Secretary of Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Mr. Ishtiaquddin Ahmed, Chief Conservator of Forests (CCF) and Dr. Niaz Ahmed, Country Representative of IUCN. In between, Mr. Enayetullah Khan, Chairman of WTB also invited the WTB team and the two guests to an informal gathering in his residence in which ambassadors from Denmark, UK, Canada, Country Director of World Bank, Director of Goethe-Institute, entrepreneurs and some university professors were also present.

It was an excellent platform to exchange news of our activities with others and it was encouraging also to see that all guests grew interested in our work.

All in all, the visit by Ms. Sarah and Prof. Jonathan proved to be highly productive and left us with a series of upcoming activities.

Nazneen Ahmed
Dhaka
sundarbanstigerproject@gmail.com

Training on wild tiger capture and immobilization

The Forest Department (FD) held a day-long refresher training course for the FD field staff in the Burigoalini forest camp of Satkhira district. Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh and Zoological Society of London provided the trainers and technical support. The training was a follow-up of an immobilisation workshop held in January aimed at training FD staff in immobilizing and capturing wild tigers.



We hope such trainings will increase the skills of FD staff and allow them to handle stray tiger incidents more effectively. However, the handling of conflict tigers requires specialist skills so additional training sessions have been planned to ensure that FD staff have the skills they need.

Besides the participants, other guests included Md. Akbar Hossain, Conservator of Forest (CF), Khulna Circle, and Md. Zahiruddin Ahmed, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), Sundarbans West Forest Division.

Assessing the impacts of tiger human conflict

In October, Chloe Inskip (a PhD candidate from Durrell Institute of Conservation & Ecology, University of Kent, UK) departed for field work with her team to study the socio-economic impacts of tiger-human conflict in the vicinity of the Sundarbans in order to develop ways of alleviating the social and economic effects of conflict.



Their first stop was at the forest range of Sarankhola in Satkhira district, one of four case study villages they are going to survey over the next six months. They have been conducting rigorous interviews with various village members including ‘tiger widows’ (women whose husbands have been killed by tigers), tiger victims, and people whose livestock has been killed by tigers. In doing so, the team tried to collect the feelings of these people about what it is like to live in Sarankhola – on the doorstep of the Sundarbans and in the realm of the tiger. They also tried to explore additional issues affecting the villagers, e.g. the hardships they face, their attitudes towards and perceptions of tigers, and the impacts that tigers and other wild animals have at the personal, household and village levels. The team also discussed with the villagers what they would like to see change in the villages to improve their lives and livelihoods and the ways the villagers could help to bring about these changes.

Poverty, lack of employment options, the restrictions on collection of resources from the Sundarbans and poor transport infrastructure were the key topics brought up by the interviewees. The villagers also talked a lot about the devastating impacts of Sidr (Aila was barely mentioned). The impacts felt by households as a result of tiger presence were extremely varied and their attitudes towards tigers were mixed.

Work on the transcription and translation of the interviews has now begun and the team will soon be preparing for their visit to their second case study site, Baidyamari, in two weeks time.

Building a knowledge centre

The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and WTB are together developing a knowledge centre to promote knowledge of the environment and conservation among people from all walks of life, including students, researchers, journalists, and teachers.

Mr Enayetullah Khan, Chairman of WTB and also owner of the official building of WTB, has kindly donated office space for the knowledge centre. The knowledge centre will be open to public some time in December.

By improving people’s knowledge of the environment, we hope this centre will help to fuel conservation innovation and build a new generation of conservationists in the country.

Such a conservation-focused library is the first of its kind in Bangladesh and we also plan to make it a platform for exchanging views. Hopefully this will create a network between conservationists and the greater mass.

This centre will provide a wide variety of e-journals, conservation research papers and text books to educate people about biodiversity and the innovative conservation measures that are taking place across the world. Besides providing educational materials our knowledge centre will also hold discussion sessions and film shows about biodiversity conservation to help young conservationists to share views.

We have named this centre after the late Dr. Noazesh Ahmed, a naturalist and also one of the Founding Members of WTB.

Nazneen Ahmed
Dhaka
sundarbanstigerproject@gmail.com

Making response teams sustainable

Are our Village Tiger Response Teams sustainable in the long-term? The members of these teams are volunteers and not paid employees. How long will they be prepared to volunteer for? The common assumption was that unless the teams were paid they would not keep offering their voluntary services for long.

Therefore we at STP took this assumption into account and devised a way by which the voluntary teams can be leaders themselves and continue operating without depending on our involvement or motivation. Our Participatory Management and Community Outreach (PMCO) team has decided to develop a communication system between all the teams. We hope that by exchanging news of each other, the teams will be able to strengthen relationships among themselves, will be accountable to each other and will also be able to sustain themselves in the long run. In short we have set up a platform from which the response teams can communicate with each other - something they never did before and we have also tried to make these community teams more structured.

This will be done by holding two consecutive monthly meetings.

These meetings will also be attended by members of our PMCO team, Modinul Ahsan and Ashraful Haque.

Showing interest in tigers

Another good news is that the students and the governing body of the Degree college in Munshiganj took their own initiative to hold a discussion on tigers and the Sundarbans with our PMCO team. They were interested to know the importance of tigers, how to protect stray tigers, what role they (students) could play to save stray tigers and so on. They even asked for more such informative discussions in future. It is a good development indeed to see that some local people are beginning to show initiative in understanding the importance of saving tigers, which are our national animal.

Nationwide Focus Group Discussions

After completing Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) in the Sundarbans communities we are now conducting similar FGDs in the four divisional cities of Khulna, Dhaka, Chittagong and Barisal. This time the groups for FGDs include student, media, employees of different government and non government offices and urban dwellers. Individuals of these groups have the potential to influence the human behaviours that are posing threats to tigers and other wildlife. That is why we consider these individuals as the agents of change and by approaching them we want to find what opinions they have of tigers and the Sundarbans and what role they can play in conserving the two.



Among the several issues that have emerged so far from these FGDs is the growing threat of wildlife trade, for example, trade in snakes. Though these groups are urban dwellers, they too know about the deer poaching that is going rampant in the Sundarbans. For example the students shared their experiences about people they had come across in their personal lives, people who easily avail deer meat and who have been raising wild deer in captivity for some years.

We received a very warm welcome particularly from the people of Barisal. The very fact that we had come all the way from Dhaka to discuss tigers surprised them a lot and they took it as a development that at least some group is showing concern for the issue. They mentioned that we should visit them frequently as our visits would work as reminders to them to care for tigers and the Sundarbans.

Nazneen Ahmed
Dhaka
sundarbanstigerproject@gmail.com

Sundarbans communities in Focus Group Discussion

In June, we had mentioned that we would conduct Knowledge, Attitude, Practice (KAP) survey on the communities adjacent to Sundarbans to validate our assumptions about tiger and Sundarbans related issues. While the quantitative part of the survey, that is, questionnaire based interviews are yet to be completed, we successfully finished the qualitative part in rural areas: Focus Group Discussion (FGD) in four villages namely Morgang, Kalabogi, Sarankhola and Chandpai forest ranges. The main four criteria for choosing these four villages were reports on tiger sightings, stray tiger killing incidents, prey poaching and presence of Village Tiger Response Teams.



The FGDs were held for three weeks and separately among six groups of villagers – youths, women, opinion leaders, Forest Department staffs, forest resource collectors and local businessmen. Each group consisted of 5/6 members. Throughout the trip we were helped by the enthusiastic members of Village Tiger Response Teams and wildlife technician Mr. Alam Howlader.

Apart from knowing about the KAP of local people, we also noticed some destructive means of livelihood in the colonies adjacent to the forest. A large number of local fishermen use poison as an easier way to catch fish from the creeks in the Sundarbans. These people throw poison into the creeks where it slowly diffuses into the water and kills all available fish and other non-target aquatic organisms. It is thought that other land animals are also dying or getting affected by eating these contaminated fish.

Prior to our survey we had known through a study conducted by one of our members that deer poaching is happening in the Sundarbans. However, the common superstition that tiger body parts can cure diseases still prevailed in those rural areas and people appeared eager to collect tiger parts if they had been available.
Our next plan is to conduct similar FGDs among the urban dwellers from the cities of Dhaka, Khulna, Chittagong and Barisal


Nazneen Ahmed
Dhaka

Celebrating Global Tiger Day in Dhaka

Bangladesh like other tiger ranging countries observed the Global Tiger Day with full enthusiasm and excitement on the 29th July, 2010. The Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) and the Forest Department (FD) with cooperation from the World Bank, telecom operator Banglalink and Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh (WTB) organized a rally, a discussion session and a photo exhibition to mark the day. The FD also distributed T shirts and caps among the participants with the slogan “Save endangered tigers, save Sundarbans” printed on them.



The lively rally, decorated with banners and festoons and consisting of approximately 500 people, began at 8:30 am from the National Museum and ended at the National Press Club. The rally was attended, among others, by the chief guest Dr. Hasan Mahmud, State Minister of Environment and Forest (MoEF), Dr.Mihir Kanti Majumder, Secretary of MoEF, Mr. Md. Abdul Mutaleb, Chief Conservator of Forest (CCF), Mr. Ishitiaq Uddin Ahmed, Deputy Chief Conservator of Forest (DCCF), Mr. Enayetullah Khan and Prof. Md. Anwarul Islam, Chairman and CEO of WTB respectively, FD staff, WTB team and school, college and university students. A band played musical instruments while the procession marched with the rhythm of the music. Needless to say, it captured the attention of all passersby, who have never seen anything like this before – a day for the tigers!

After arriving at the Press Club, the discussion session started promptly at the Press Club auditorium in which Prof. Md. Anwarul Islam spoke as the keynote speaker and as one of the special guests. The session was presided over by Mr. Md. Abdul Mutaleb. Dr. Hasan Mahmud spoke as the chief guest and other speakers included special guests Dr.Mihir Kanti Majumder and Professor Kazi Zaker Husain, Mr. Enayetullah Khan, Mr. Ishitiaq Uddin Ahmed, Mr. Salek Shahriyar, Senior Executive Marketing from Banglalink, Mr. Khasru Chowdhury, Environment & Forest advisor of the Daily Prothom Alo and a representative from the World Bank.

It came as a great pleasure to know that this day was proposed for the Global Tiger Day by Dr. Hasan Mahmud during the Asian Ministerial conference held in Thailand in January. Judging by the different conservation measures, including the decision to open dialogues with India for trans-boundary conservation of Bengal tigers, it is evident that the government is taking a genuine interest in conserving the country’s national pride.

In Khulna

The FD and WTB brought out a rally from the Khulna Circuit House. A discussion session began in the District Commissioner conference hall at around 9:30 am in which Dr Monowar Islam, Director General of the Directorate of Environment, Mr. Akbar Hossain, Conservator of Forest (Khulna Circle) and Mr. Suprio Chakma from WTB were also present.



In Satkhira

The day was observed with more vigour and colours in the Shyamnagar upazila of Satkhira district. A bright rally consisting of all members of Forest Tiger Response Team and Village Tiger Response Teams was brought out from Munshiganj. The FD arranged a discussion session in the head office of Sushilon, a local NGO. Mr. Abdus Samad, the District Commissioner (DC) of Satkhira spoke as the chief guest while other guests included Mr. Ashim Joarder, UP Chairman of Burigoalini, Mr. Shahin Hossain, coordinator of the NGO, BARCIK and Mr. Modinul Ahsan, participatory management coordinator of WTB.




The most noteworthy part of the event was that nearly all the participants were villagers comprising the forest resource users and farmers whose lives are directly or indirectly affected by the Sundarbans and tigers. The zeal with which these low-income groups took part in the programmes of Tiger Day is truly laudable and shows that if they are made aware and educated about wildlife conservation, they would most likely become the ultimate guardians of the Sundarbans as well.

To sum it all the MoEF and the FD together did a remarkable work. The Tiger Day observance in the three regions proved to be very participatory and engaging as a result of which the ordinary citizens at least got the essence of tiger conservation.

Wildlife Act on the way to amendment

The cabinet approved the new Wildlife Preservation Act 2010 in principle. WTB assisted the FD prepare this new law that has integrated the latest international conventions and laws including local people participation in forest and wildlife management and severe punishments to protect endangered species including our Bengal tigers. Following the example of India the new law has fixed punishment as high as 50 lakh taka with minimum imprisonment of 12 years to maximum lifetime imprisonment for killing any critically endangered species.

We heartily welcome the government’s pro conservation initiatives to secure Bangladesh’s bio diversity and we only hope that these initiatives go a long way.

Nazneen Ahmed
Dhaka

Response teams gain momentum!

We have good news to share again in this update - June 9th saw another report on tiger attack incident on the newspapers. A fisherman named Saiful along with two others from Shayamnagar Upazila in Satkhira district had gone fishing in a creek inside the forest. Suddenly a tiger attacked them and killed Saiful while his other two mates fled from the spot. Later in the evening when the members of Kolagachia village tiger response team, Enamul, Liton, Asgar, Mannan and others, heard this news from Saiful’s two other mates, they immediately offered to help. This team was formed just a week earlier and yet, new as they were, they helped their fellow villagers recover the victim’s body safely from the tiger and handed it over to the deceased’s family for burial.



Modinul, Ashraful and Yasin have completed forming the village based response teams in Satkhira range. These teams are made up of local villagers who step forward as volunteers to provide this service to their community.

With the help of such teams the Sundarbans Tiger Project hopes to provide field level assistance to the villages adjacent to Sundarbans during different tiger attack incidents. It is likely that the village tiger response teams of Sundarbans will become an effective way for the villagers to deal with conflict situations.

Field trip knocking at the door

After holding a series of workshops and meetings, it is now time to test the information on various tiger related issues that we have so far collected from our different partners. Until now we had only engaged secondary stakeholders (NGOs, media, local school teachers) in our workshops and discussions, sitting in air conditioned rooms. Now we are going to step out of this urban comfort and wear the shoes of our primary stakeholders in the grass root level, i.e. the honey collectors, fishermen, golpata collectors and many more – after all they are the principal groups who affect and are affected first by tigers and the Sundarbans. So we can’t possibly exclude them from anything that we do for tiger conservation. On the contrary, we must work with them and engage them in our activities.

From KAP survey pix

We are going to approach these local communities of the Sundarbans to test our assumptions of some burning issues in which their behaviours are involved. For instance we guess that villagers beat stray tigers to death because of animosity toward the animal. Then again our field experience says that villagers’ attitude toward the stray tiger is not always that of animosity - many young men believe that it is very macho and brave to kill a tiger. However, all of these are only assumptions. If we are to do any campaigns in future about tiger conservation, we have to use the right message and for this right message we need facts not assumptions. This is why we need to uncover the truth by doing an important survey that will test the Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) of these people about tigers.

Travis and Rezvin are working upon the research methodology of this survey, which, once peer reviewed and finalised, will give a green signal to the rest of the team to move ahead. Iqbal is taking care of the logistical support and will be running focus group discussions during the survey. Interviews will be conducted by the local youths, preferably by members of the village tiger response teams. All interviewers will be trained for this task by Rezvin, Iqbal and Nazneen. The survey will run through mid-July till mid August in four villages namely Mirgang, Kalabogi, Sarankhola and Chandpai from four forest ranges.

However, this is not the end. After finishing the village survey, we will again embark on a national survey in four divisions - Dhaka, Khulna, Barisal and Chittagong.

All the while the survey team will be lodged on a boat and plunged into a raging coastal monsoon and rolling waves! Bon voyage!

Meeting with the FD

On June 10, Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh (WTB) had a meeting with the Forest Department (FD) at their office in Bana Bhaban located in Agargaon.

The purpose for the meeting was to offer our strategy development process for FD’s review and to collect their feedback on it. Though the Bangladesh Tiger Action Plan (BTAP) has provided guidelines to conserve tigers in the next eight years, it hasn’t given any detailed strategy and implementation plan that includes activities, responsibilities and budgets. So in order to keep up with the BTAP’s conservation rules, WTB is developing another strategy to complement the BTAP.



Our core areas for review were assessment of target (tiger, prey and habitat) viability, threat prioritization and behaviour change process. We also introduced Miradi software that we are using to manage our work with the FD team.

Some suggestions that came up from the workshop included merging our strategic action plan with those of the FD and other partners, namely USAID Integrated Protected Area Co management (IPAC) and SEALS who are presently working in the same region. In that way instead of having three different action plans, we would have one for every one to focus upon. It was also recommended to train more FD field staff and include them in all types of surveys conducted by WTB.
The meeting consisted of the WTB team, FD staff including regional Mr. Md. Abdul Mutaleb (Chief Conservator of Forest), Mr. Tapan Kumar Dey (Conservator of Forests, Wildlife & Nature Conservation Circle), Mr. Md. Akbar Hossain(Conservator of Forests, Khulna) and Divisional Forest Officers (DFOs). We are developing an action plan that will specify the exact actions needed to conserve tigers.


Nazneen Ahmed
Dhaka