News Archive


Nature and Wildlife

Eat Curry and Save Tigers!

From Banner

Love eating curry?

Love the Bengal Tigers even more?

If you’re currently in the UK, the ‘Eat Curry and Save Tigers’ campaign gives you the perfect opportunity to combine these two loves and make a real difference!

From May 14 -17, Simply go out and dine in one of the 500 or more participating restaurants throughout the UK for a special tiger-saving banquet! For £20.00, you can get a fantastic three course curry meal, 25% of which will go to the Sundarbans Tiger Project. You can find the details of the campaign and how you can participate in this website: Save the Bengal Tiger

The more people go out to have one of these delicious meals, the more the Bengal tigers will benefit.
So, Eat yourself, tell your friends – Involve as many people as possible.

The tigers need your help!



Friendly football match in Shatkhira

On April 1, 2012, a friendly football match between the VTRTs of Shatkhira range and the Kolbari Crab Collector Cooperative Society took place in Burigoalini. It was a festive and joyous event arranged fully by the VTRTs. A huge crowd gathered to watch the match, including many VTRT members from other ranges. During the match, safety measures for working within the forest were announced and stickers were distributed. In a very exciting finish, the Crab collectors scored a goal in the very last minute and won the game! The chairman of Burigoalini union handed over the trophies to the teams. In a post match cultural event, folk singer Daud Boyati and Keya Parveen performed until midnight, delighting the crowd. FTRT member Mujibur Rahman sang a moving song in memory of the belated VTRT leader from Mirgang, the late Kawsar Ali Morol. The event was a success, and a testament of the passion of the VTRTs for their cause.




WTB celebrates Pohela Boishakh

WTB-Khulna office celebrated the commencement of the Bangla New Year 1419 in grand style this year. The office premises were decorated with colourful alpona, which the staff created themselves! In the morning, a colourful rally, with mascots of tigers started from the Khulna office and marched on to Jailkhana ghaat. Delighted crowds cheered on the rally as it progressed. WTB hopes the New Year brings joy, prosperity and a happier planet for all of us.



Workshop on ‘Assessing conflict tiger management options to develop a Tiger-Human Conflict decision-making support tool’

From 24-26 April, The wildlife Trust of Bangladesh, in joint collaboration with Bangladesh organized a technical workshop to explore and provide guidance on tools and options to deal with Tiger-Human conflict, which was inaugurated by Mr. Md. Yunus Ali, Chief Conservator of Forests. This workshop focused on immediate actions to deal with a current conflict situation. Important decisions regarding the methods of monitoring a conflict tiger to ensure the safety of both the tiger and human lives were taken. Dr. John Goodrich from Wildlife Conservation Society, Dr. John Lewis from Wildlife Vets International, Dr. Linda Kerley from Zoological Society of London were present as international experts. A second workshop will be held to agree on the roles and responsibilities during conflict situations to ensure clear coordination in the field. A press meet was arranged to communicate the findings of the workshop to the media.



Roundtable on ‘Scientific monitoring of tigers in the Sundarbans of Bangladesh and India’

A technical roundtable on scientific monitoring of tigers in the Sundarbans was held on 29-30 April 2012 at Ban Bhaban, Agargaon. The objective of this roundtable was to develop a joint monitoring protocol for the Sundarbans of Bangladesh and India. Technical tiger monitoring experts from Bangladesh, India and around the world have presented on the various scientific techniques available. The group then discussed their applicability to the unique Sundarbans ecosystem. The group has come up with a set of recommendations for a joint monitoring protocol for tigers across the Sundarbans. A working group including government and non government organization representatives from both Bangladesh and India has been formed to carry on the next steps identified through this roundtable discussion.




Khal Survey 2012 completed

To track changes in tiger population in order to understand the success or deficiencies in conservation activities, ‘Khal Survey’s have been carried out in 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2011 by Sundarbans Tiger Project. This method has been reviewed and accepted by international experts and assesses relative tiger abundance by recording the number of tiger track sets along the banks of creeks. This year, the survey kicked off on April 8, and finished in 3 weeks. 11 boats and 50 people including WTB members, VTRTS and staff from the Forest Department took part in the survey. It was three weeks of adverse weather and incredible hard work. A challenge which the teams undertook with confidence and resilience. Let’s congratulate everyone who worked so hard to help protect our tigers!




Ananya Rubayat
Dhaka
sundarbanstigerproject@gmail.com

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Jobs in tiger conservation
Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh (WTB)

Position: Field Assistant
2 year contract starting in 15 March 2012, with possibility to extend
Closing date: 29 February 2012
More information


Position: Research Officer
1 year contract starting in April 2012, with possibility to extend
Closing date: 27 February 2012
More information



Nature and Wildlife

First Community Camp of Sundarban Mayer Moton campaign !

The field activities of the Sundarbans Mayer Moton campaign began today with the first community camp at Koikhali. The event was a success with more than a hundred people gathering in the very first session!



104 community camps will be organized across the 26 unions in the Sundarbans periphery over the next three months. The audience will be shown a documentary prepared especially for the campaign, and afterwards they will have a chance to answer questions and win prizes as well.
Let’s hope this is the first of many such successful events!



Celebrating Nature, Inspiring People

Who do you value most in the world?
For most of us, the answer would be our mothers, or ‘Ma’. She’s the one who shelters us against the world, the one who nurtures us and provides us a shaded, loving home. To protect her, we will defy all odds, move entire mountains if we must.

In the southern corner of Bangladesh, a vast forest has been protecting us just as a mother would. The Sundarbans holds our land in a loving embrace, shields us against the assaults of cyclones and tornadoes; silently and resiliently. Axes have cut its trees, poachers have hunted its animals – but it still has not abandoned us. Children are often stubborn, refusing to understand the consequences of their actions. We too have chosen to ignore the hurt we have caused the Sundarbans for long enough.



With the goal of reversing this cycle of destruction, the Sundarbans Tiger Project of the Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh has begun a five year long communication campaign in the periphery of the Sundarbans. The Sundarbans is much bigger than the tigers, but we cannot imagine the existence of one without the other. To ensure our next generation opens their eyes in a country that is home to wild tigers, we need to make sure that the wild still exists. The campaign to save tigers is therefore a campaign to save the Sundarbans.

The launching ceremony of this campaign, titled ‘Sundarban Mayer Moton’, (motherlike Sundarbans) was held on February 17, in the University of Khulna. The activities of the campaign will focus on promoting the Sundarbans as a nurturing and integral part of the communities and to establish it as more than a mere source of livelihood to the people. Instead of delivering raw information and education, the campaign aims to convey this message to the hearts of the people by becoming a part of their everyday activities and traditional festivals. Similarly, the launch also provided a chance for people to learn about tigers and Sundarbans in a welcoming and joyous environment.

The activities of the day began in the morning with a colourful rally starting from Hadis Park. The rally where hundreds of children participated came alive with beautiful mascots of tigers, birds and other animals. Life-size walking Muppets of tiger and deer was especially popular among the participants and observers. The rally entered ended in the event venue of Khulna University where it was received with loud cheers and applause.

In the mean time, a painting competition also began in Khulna University. Children depicted their feelings about the Sundarbans and tigers through vivid colours. School children from all around Khulna participated in the contest with enthusiasm and produced many brilliant works of art. 6 participants from two groups were awarded prizes and certificates.

Afterwards the official opening ceremony of the campaign began. Iqbal Hussain, Programme Coordinator of the Sundarbans Tiger Project explained the necessity of raising awareness and ownership regarding the Sundarbans in his welcome address. Adam Barlow, Manager of the South-East Asia Programme of Zoological Society of London came next and talked about the importance of protecting the Sundarbans. The Chief Conservator of Forests, Md. Yunus Ali and the Vice Chancellor of Khulna University Prof. Dr. Md. Saifuddin Shah both expressed their wholehearted support and good wishes for the campaign. Chief guest of the event, Professor Dr. A A M S Arefin Siddique, Vice Chancellor of the University of Dhaka urged everyone to come together in conserving the Sundarbans and tigers and officially marked the beginning of the campaign by flying white pigeons, a symbol of peace. Dr. Md. Anwarul Islam, Chief Executive of WTB, presided over the event and conveyed the vision of the organization in his concluding speech.

The event became a common platform for people of all ages who love the Sundarbans. All day long thousands of people were present in the premises and spontaneously participated in all event activities. The evening festivities included musical performances by local and national performers. In a very moving moment, Daud Boyati, a popular folk singer of Khulna performed the theme song of the campaign and received a marvelous ovation from the crowd. Joler Gaan performed next, their unique use of instruments and beautiful melodies were appreciated by everyone. Finally, popular band Shironaamheen took the stage. Amidst the loud cheers of tens of thousands of people they gave awe inspiring performances. In between the songs, all performers expressed their feelings of love for the Sundarbans. Under the starlit night, the united resolution of so many hearts created an atmosphere of incredible solidarity. Dr. Md. Anwarul Islam, announced the conclusion of the evening and once again reminded everyone about how our combined efforts can transform the world we live in for the better.

For the organizers, the event was a labour of love; for the audience, certainly a day they will remember warmly. However, this ceremony only marked the beginning of a long and difficult journey to conserve the Sundarbans. An event like this only ignites a spark within people; it is up to each of us to keep the flame alive. Without the combined efforts of people from all walks of life, our beloved Sundarbans does not stand a chance to survive. Let us take this opportunity to come together, take one united step and raise our voice to protect the Sundarbans and tigers. Let us live each day in an environmentally responsible manner and show our love and pride for our motherlike Sundarbans.


Inauguration of Angtihara Rajkonna


On 16th February, the 4th boat of STP began its maiden voyage. The boat was named Angtihara Rajkonna, or the princess of Angtihara, after the stray tiger rescued from a village with the same name on January. Professor Md. Anwarul Islam inaugurated the colourfully decorated boat in the afternoon. Afterwards, Chaprakhali Rani, Kodomtola Rani and Angtihara Rajkonna went for a brief trip side by side.
We wish Angtihara Rajkonna all the best and many adventures in tiger conservation!

WTB visits Baagerhaat



On 18th February, the WTB family went to Baagerhaat Shat Gombuj moshjid for their annual get together. It was an opportunity for everyone to know each other better. All teams of WTB gave brief presentations about their good work in 2011, and talked about their plans for the upcoming year. Members of the fundraising team stole the show with their fantastic dance routine! In the afternoon the Khan Jahan Ali Mazaar was visited, where they caught sight of a crocodile! It was a fun filled day where everyone could relax and bond with each other.

Step up (or take a freefall!) for tigers!

Wondering how you can contribute in tiger conservation? The answer’s simple, be wild at heart!
Jason Greenwood, a long time supporter of tigers did a sponsored parachute jump last year to raise money for tigers. He managed to raise £700 for the tiger project! Here’s what he had to say about the experience.



“It’s a beautiful blue November day. I watch the aeroplane high above sowing tiny seeds that quickly blossom into a host of colourful canopies.
Then it’s my turn.
Since I’m a tandem jumper my briefing is short: “remember to breathe”. I feel fairly confident in my allotted task.
As we stroll to our craft like Apollo astronauts I notice a snarling mouth painted on the front of the plane. I think of tigers and the sponsorship money riding on this. There’s no turning back now.
They squeeze as many jumpers into each flight as they can. Unfortunately I’m claustrophobic so I force myself to concentrate on the view: the vastness of Morecambe Bay and the peaks of the Lake District painted pink by the setting sun. A condemned man couldn’t have requested a better sight.
“Are you alright?” Brian, my jump partner, frequently asks. I hear myself gibbering about the scenery for the benefit of Ian who has started filming us on his helmet camera.
Brian keeps showing me his very large wrist-watch. Why? Is it new? No, it’s an altimeter. I will the hand to 14,000 feet, when we can escape this oxygen-poor incarceration.
At last the engine throttles down, the door is opened and the solo jumpers begin hurling themselves into the void, shrieking insanely, until the compartment in front of us is eerily empty. I’m now strapped to Brian’s chest like an overgrown baby. We shuffle to the gaping doorway.
Perched on the edge, I contemplate the ground far beneath my feet.
We topple out.
It’s impossible to deny Newton’s theory as we hurtle earthwards at frightening speed. I fight to lift my head and grin at Ian’s camera but it’s more like a grimace on the film as I struggle to inhale the air roaring past. Then a huge force pulls at my harness and I see Ian plummet out of sight beneath us.
Now everything is still. We are hanging in the air, thousands of feet above the airfield.
“It’s like being an angel,” I gasp, possibly experiencing oxygen starvation.
“I wouldn’t know about that,” says Brian, probably thinking me some strange evangelical.
We do a few tight turns. As the grass rises up to meet us I lift my legs so that my arse touches down first, followed by the rest of me in a sliding full stop.
Mission accomplished.”


For those who are looking for other ways to help, you can take a leaf out of Rich and Gaby’s book. They found a way to make their wedding day a special occasion for tigers too. They gave their wedding guests an option to donate for tiger conservation as a wedding present and raised £600!

If anyone else has an idea to do a sponsored event to raise funds for tigers, feel free to drop a line to Rosalind Johnston (rosalind.johnston234@gmail.com)



Ananya Rubayat
Dhaka
sundarbanstigerproject@gmail.com

News Archive

Nature and Wildlife

Community campaign of Sundarbans Mayer Moton

The field activities of the Sundarbans Mayer Moton campaign began today with the first community camp at Koikhali. The event was a great success with more than a hundred people gathering in the very first session! The audience, including many children participated spontaneously and made the event a great success.



104 community camps will be organized across the 26 unions in the Sundarbans periphery over the next three months. The audience will be shown a documentary prepared especially for the campaign, and afterwards they will have a chance to answer questions and win prizes as well.
Let’s hope this is the first of many such successful events!



PMCO TEAM HAS ORGANIZED TWO REFRESHER TRAININGS

PMCO team organized two day-long refresher training sessions on "Immobilization of Wild Tiger" and "First Aid for Tiger Attack Victims" at the WTB Khulna office during the month of September. All team members of the WTB Khulna office including newly recruited field staff, FTRT boat staff and Forest Department staff from Wildlife Division participated in the two training sessions.



On the first day, we revisited the responsibilities during stray tiger situation. Md. Mahbubul Alam gave a presentation on ways for conducting immobilization of wild tiger and different aspects of managing a stray tiger. The second training session was ‘’first aid for tiger attack victims’’. After the introductory session, Talimur Reza demonstrated the first aid responsibilities for common injuries like electric shock, water drowning and snake bite. Ms. Petra Lahann also discussed about the first aid for injuries from tiger attack.

The FD officials thanked WTB for inviting them to the training sessions and expressed their happiness saying this kind of training will be very helpful for the FD staff who are working inside the Sundarbans’’.


Screening of “Ganges” held at Noakhali Science and Technology University (NSTU)



A documentary show 'GANGES' was screened at the Noakhali Science and Technology University (NSTU), on 14th September, 2011. It was a new experience for NKC to organize a film show in a university outside of Dhaka. The event was very lively with high attendance which included students as well as many faculty members. The event went successfully as it earned 50 new members for NKC. The university authority was very cooperative. They thanked NKC for arranging showing the documentary and requested to organize more events like this in future.

Parliamentary debate “Through the Lens of Young Generation”



Secondly, a parliamentary debate to address the issues of the environment through the Lens of Young Generation was held on 17th September, 2011. The topic of the debate was - “There are enough scopes/opportunities in Bangladesh for the young generation to get involved in environment-based work”. Two young, talented groups, the NKC debating group and the Jahangirnagar University Debating Society participated in that debate. The honourable judges are renowned bird specialist Mr Enam Ul Haque, President, Bangladesh Bird Club and Vice Chairman, Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh and Ms Majeda Haq, General Secretary, Bangladesh Bird Club and Cluster Head, Local Poverty Reduction, UNDP. The debate was lively and energetic and the audience thoroughly enjoyed the program. NKC was requested to arrange such type of events more frequently.

Presentation to students of Dept. of Environmental Science & Management, North South University, Dhaka

Third event was a presentation “On how youth can play role in nature conservation” held at in North South University, on 25th September, 2011. This was organized by the WTB Women's Group and Ms Nazneen Ahmed, Programme Officer – Policy, Advocacy and Research, WTB was the presenter. Along with faculty members, students of the Dept. of Environmental Science & Management enjoyed the presentation. The presentation fully captured the audience's attention which comprised of faculty members and the students. They listened with great interest and were full of praise for the presentation.


Mahsoun N R Choudhury
Dhaka
sundarbanstigerproject@gmail.com

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Nature and Wildlife

Aquatic research in Sundarbans



A new WTB aquatics team has begun conducting a six-month pilot project to collect baseline research and scope a longer-term aquatic conservation program focused on mangroves, fisheries and shrimp aquaculture in the Sundarbans. The team recently returned from a month-long boat tour of sundarban villages that allowed them to collect baseline socioeconomic information on aquatic resource use, and gauge pressures on the sustainability of the ecosystem and people’s livelihoods. 10 focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted with various stakeholder groups, in addition to a number of informal discussions, species cataloging, and direct observations of fishing practices. For some members of the team this was their first visit to the sundarbans. The hospitable and warmhearted nature of village residents, camaraderie with the broader WTB team, and frequent sightings of an assortment of sundarban wildlife, made for a truly overwhelming maiden voyage around the ‘beautiful forest’.

VTRT Road Show



The VTRT Road Show 2011 started on October 12th at Tengrakhali. The road show will cover 19 points spread across the Sundarbans and end on November 1st, in Sharbatkhali. The main objective of the road show is to introduce our VTRT teams (village based voluntary teams help forest department in stray tiger situation) to wider community and also to local administrative bodies i.e. giving them social recognition along with raising awareness regarding tiger conservation.
To view photographs from the events, please visit the Sundarbans Tiger Project group page on Facebook.

Review of Wildlife Act
The Policy, Advocacy and Regulations Team conducted a review of the current Wildlife Act. The review has been sent to the Parliamentary Standing Committee. Informally, they have let us know that they would like the Policy, Advocacy and Regulations Team to make a presentation on their findings. We are currently waiting for the official date.

NKC Update

On 14th October, NKC organized a tour of the Dhaka Zoo with 19 members of NKC. The tour guides were Mr. Sanjoy Chandra Bhatterjee and Mr. Mayeen Uddin. They provided descriptions of the animals and birds and guided the group throughout. The excursion gave the NKC members an opportunity to see animals such as tigers, lions, bears, etc. along with rare birds and other animals that are not native to Bangladesh.



On 21st October, a quiz competition titled “Tigers and the Sundarbans” was conducted by NKC. Two groups were formed, “Jolpipi” and “Maasranga” comprising of NKC members. The “Jolpipi” group won the quiz competition. Afterwards, Iqbal Hussain, Programme Coordinator, Sundarbans Tiger Project distributed prizes and certificates among the participants.

On 28th October, NKC held its monthly meeting with the members of NKC. At every meeting, knowledge sharing discussion is held and this month Mr. Sanjoy Chandra Bhatterjee shared his views on “harmful effects of pesticide on humans and other organisms”.


Mahsoun N R Choudhury
Dhaka
sundarbanstigerproject@gmail.com

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Nature and Wildlife

Happy New Year 2012



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.

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.
Contact: Iqbal Hussain, Iqbalstp@gmail.com

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Sundarbans Tiger Project (STP) is a tiger conservation project initiated by Bangladesh Forest Department and partners in 2004 and which became a part of the Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh in 2008. The project aims are to undertake tiger conservation activities to support the Bangladesh Government and also to create a wider network to bring together more people to help to conserve Bangladesh’s pride – the Royal Bengal Tiger.



Ananya Rubayat
Dhaka
sundarbanstigerproject@gmail.com

News Archive

Nature and Wildlife

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.

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.


Ananya Rubayat
Dhaka
sundarbanstigerproject@gmail.com

News Archive

Nature and Wildlife






Training On Physical Health Examination, Measurements and Sample Collection from Immobilized Tiger

The Research and Monitoring team organised a one day long training programme on ‘Physical Health Examination, Measurements and Sample Collection from Immobilized Tiger’ for WTB field staff on 19th March 2012. Md. Mahbubul Alam from RM team gave a demonstration on health assessment, and method of taking measurements after immobilization of a tiger. He also discussed about basic principles of field sample collection, preparation, store and transport. All trainees had a chance to participate actively in this interactive training session, which will help them in successful and safe management of stray tiger situations.




NKC Turns One!

Noazesh Knowledge Center, which began it’s journey on March, 2011 has tuned one. To celebrate, a party was held on the Cosmos Center rooftop on March 23. There was an exhibition showing NKC’s past activities, and a creative wall magazine created by NKC members. To mark it’s first anniversary, an essay contest was organized, S.M. Ataur Rahman won the first prize by writing an excellent piece about his vision for NKC. There was live music and a raffle draw - so everyone found something they enjoyed. Ofcourse, there was Cake and other goodies too! Let’s wish NKC a very happy anniversary and good luck for it’s journey towards becoming a shared platform for all nature lovers of Bangladesh.




Sundarban Mayer Moton: The Journey Continues

On all four ranges of the Sundarbans, local campaign activities are going on in full swing. 55 market based camps, which are called Sundarboner Mathe Ghate have already been completed. The events have been greatly enjoyed by the people, who have come in droves and participated in the event with wonderful enthusiasm. The campaign teams also joined in with the local Independence Day celebrations. Also, 32 tea parties have been organized with local journalists, Union Council members, teachers and forest department officials – to incorporate their ideas into STP’s future endeavours. The parties have generated lively, spontaneous discussions regarding the Sundarbans. So, far a total of 91 events covering 15 unions have been organized! Also, signboards have been set up in the 26 periphery unions of the Sundarbans. The field team is enjoying meeting new people in new places and spreading the campaign message. The community is also showing their lively support and gesture for the campaign.




Safety Training for Honey Hunters

On 25th March, a daylong safety training session for honey hunters was organized in Burigoalini. The objective of the session was to give them necessary information to reduce jungle risks. 67 participants from all four forest ranges participated. The activities for the day included knowledge sharing, visual presentations and interactive discussions. The participants had a chance to tell their stories and share experiences from previous expeditions. There was also first aid training with live demonstrations. To end the day, a drama was enacted by the FTRT team and the Golakhali VTRT members. The PMCO teams plans to make this safety training an annual initiative, before the honey hunting season begins in each April.




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