
The Sundarbans Tiger Project (STP) was set up by the Bangladesh Forest Department
in 2004 as a scientific research project with help from the University of Minnesota. It was initially set up to find out about the Sundarban’s tigers and how best to conserve them. Since then the STP has teamed up
with The Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh and The Zoological Society of London to expand their work further. To spend any time with these devoted conservationists was a true honour. My first destination was The Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh where I met with Henry Churchill, the STP Campaigns Manager and his conservation team, Dr Adam Barlow and Christina Greenwood. Dr Barlow explained how the project works in tandem with The Bangladeshi Forest Department and is committed in becoming leaders in tiger conservation through research. They’re also dedicated to the reduction of tiger and human conflict via their Tiger Response Team. Tigers are known to wander into villages and attack or kill humans: between 15 and 50 people killed on average every year in the region.
The team wants to help build relations with local people and avoid unnecessary suffering from tiger attacks. Or indeed retaliation attacks on tigers. A recent development has been a new resource centre set up by the Bangladesh Wildlife Trust and STP to help future generations on the issues of conservation. But they’re a tiny team and have thousands of kilometers to cover; the work is never ending.
Full article in Chaat! Magazine (issue 1)
By Nazmul Islam
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