Bangladesh Sundarbans

I was very young when I first arrived in England in the early 70s. I have returned on many occasions, but I’ve never felt I’d seen the real Bangladesh. All I knew was the sanitised and guarded evergreen view of my hometown of Moulvi Bazar. I wanted to explore the true country that I was born in. I wanted to see the true Bangladesh, and the Sundarbans was at the very top of my wish list. The largest mangrove forest in the world, the Sundarbans covers an area of 10,000 square kilometers that spans both Bangladesh and India. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, and a shortlist to the New 7 Wonders Of The World, it’s home to one of the most impressive animals on our planet, the Royal Bengal Tiger, an animal I’d wanted to see in its natural habitat all my life. I started planning my visit and contacted The Sundarbans Tiger Project.

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