India and Bangladesh, which share the world’s largest and continuous mangrove forest, are working together for better protection of its top predator.
The forest departments on both sides, with help from organisations that work to mitigate human-wildlife conflict, are implementing each others’ best practices for conservation.
Starting February 15, an exercise to set up a nylon net fencing will start in two pockets of the Bangladesh Sundarban prone to human-tiger conflict, similar to the nets put up by foresters on this side of the border.
In the Sunderbans in Bengal, foresters and NGO workers are banking on increased engagement of the local community, especially children, in mitigating conflict. The drive is modelled on Bangladesh.
Participants from both countries at the tiger conservation programme in Bagerhat district in Bangladesh last week. The Telegraph
In Bengal, nylon nets mark around 180km of the forest boundary. The nets have for several years been useful in preventing incidents of tigers straying into villages and villagers entering the forest.
In Bangladesh, the nylon net fencing will come up in the Koikhali station in the Satkhira forest range, part of the Sundarban West division and Dhansagar station in Chandpai range, part of the Sundarban East division.
“The fencing will cover 20km in total — 10km in each of the two pockets. It is a pilot project. If it yields results, the fencing will be expanded in phases,” said Abu Naser Mohsin Hossain, the divisional forest officer in Sundarban West and the project director of the Sundarban Tiger Conservation Project, an initiative of the Bangladesh forest department.
In the Chandpai range, a fisherman was killed by a tiger two months ago, said Hossain.
“The Bhola river, which separates the forest and the villages, has thinned to a large extent because of heavy siltation over the years. Cattle from villages can cross the river easily to go for grazing into the grasslands near the forest. Tigers can also stray into a village by crossing the river,” said Hossain.
A team of 12 students — called Tiger Scouts — from two schools in Kultali, South 24-Parganas, visited Bangladesh between February 4 and 9. They were part of a “trans-boundary community engagement learning and sharing in tiger conservation”.
Three NGOs — Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), Lokamata Rani Rashmoni Mission (LRRM) in Joynagar (South 24-Parganas) and WildTeam, Bangladesh — were involved in the programme.
In Bangladesh, WildTeam has been working extensively to engage local community members in tiger conservation. Tiger scouts are children between Classes VI and X who are trained at schools in villages on the fringes of the forests.
“The scouts spread awareness in their neighbourhoods. They desist elders and neighbours from eating deer meat. They stress the importance of reducing the dependence on forest resources. There are Bagh Bondhus (Friends of Tigers), teachers and public representatives who wield some influence over the local population. They also help in tiger conservation. We have 50 tiger scouts and 55 Bagh Bondhus,” said Md Anwarul Islam, CEO, WildTeam and a former professor in the department of zoology at Dhaka University.
Modelled on Bangladesh, two Sunderbans education centres in Kultali started training tiger scouts a little over a year ago.
The education centres at Madhya Purba Gurguria Adarsha Vidyapith and Ambikanagar Haripriya High School were formally inaugurated last month.
A team of tiger scouts and Bagh Bondhus from Bengal went to Joymoni in Bagerhat district in Bangladesh.
It was held under the Integrated Tiger Habitat Conservation Program (ITHCP) supported by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
“Collaborative efforts between India and Bangladesh are imperative to ensure safety and flourishing of local people as well as tigers,” said Abhishek Ghoshal, head, human-wildlife conflict mitigation division, WTI.
“Tigers do not know borders. So, better collaboration is a must. We should pick up from their best practices, like they should from us,” said Milan Kumar Mandal, divisional forest officer, South-24 Parganas forest division.
The Sunderbans is spread over 10,000sqkm, of which 60 per cent is in Bangladesh.
According to the most recent tiger census in India, the report of which was released in April 2023, there are around 100 tigers in the Indian side of the Sunderbans.
“The Sundarbans tigers are well-suited to the mangrove ecosystem, but their habitat is confined. The tiger population and landscape are both threatened by biotic interference in the form of forest exploration.... To preserve the ecological integrity of the area, cross-border collaboration and knowledge exchange between India and Bangladesh are imperative,” said the Status of Tigers 2022 report.
According to the last survey conducted in Bangladesh in 2018, there were 114 tigers in the Sundarban in Bangladesh.