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Tiger conservation in Bangladesh
The Sundarbans in Bangladesh is home to one of the largest surviving single populations of tigers in the world. However, despite being legally protected since 1974, the tiger is critically endangered.
Tiger populations there have been drastically reduced nationwide and they now live only in the Sundarbans - the world’s only remaining mangrove forest with tigers in it.
The Sundarbans, literally meaning 'beautiful forest', forms the world’s largest tidal mangrove forest and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
As a whole the Sundarbans lies in both Bangladesh and India, and both contain Indian tigers. However it is Bangladesh that provides the main habitat for this tiger population with more than two-thirds resident there.
ZSL, with support from the Save the Tiger Fund, is carrying out key tiger conservation and research in Bangladesh. The primary aims include finding out more about how tigers use this unique habitat, estimating tiger density, reducing illegal killing of tigers and prey and assessing the effect of tourism on both.
An important aspect of the project is that it is studying tigers outside the official sanctuaries - of which there are three - as well as inside. Previous estimates were based on pugmark studies, which are controversial, so most of these were over-estimates.
The Sundarbans are notorious for their man-eating tigers and addressing this problem is also a key focus of ZSL’s work there. Despite their protected status, tigers continue to be killed in Bangladesh, often in responses to attacks on people.
The traditional protection method adopted by local inhabitants may not be the most effective - a high percentage of local people rely purely on spiritual belief systems for their protection from tigers. The project does not discourage this, but encourages individuals to also use more practical methods of protection that could deter a tiger attack, such as guard dogs to sound the alarm, a watchman with each party, and carrying large sticks.
The project also aims to create groups of local young people ('Bagher Bandhu' or 'Friends of the Tiger' groups) to work as informal intelligence to gather information on tiger and prey poaching and, with the help of Project Sundarbans Tiger (PST) and Forest Department, act against it.
Important research into public perceptions is also forming a framework on which to build an affective awareness programme. Public knowledge about the Bangladesh Wildlife Act 1974 - which provides national legal protection for tigers among others - is very low, whilst public belief in the medicinal use of tiger parts appears to be high.
However counteracting both of these statistics is the widely held public opinion that tiger conservation is important and should be supported - villagers are well aware that the tigers protect their forest from development, both as an individual deterrent and as a legal obstacle.
