Wildlife in the Sundarbans is under serious threat. Of late a large number of poachers are active in the world's largest mangrove forest. Local people say gangs of poachers in connivance with a section of forest officials kill wild animals without any hindrance.
According to an estimate, the total number of wildlife species in the Sundarbans is nearly 400. This includes 35 reptiles, 315 birds and 42 mammals. The main wildlife in the Sundarbans includes Royal Bengal Tiger, spotted deer, boar, monkey, crocodile, python, turtle, dolphin, cat and a variety of birds spreading over 6017 square kilometre area. The authorities concerned have declared three areas of the forest as non-shooting zones. The press report says that the non-shooting zones consist of 5439 hectares of land in Kotka, 1778 hectares of land in Hiron Point and 9069 hectares in Mandarbari.But the animals are not even safe from the poachers in these non-shooting zones.
Quoting Professor Anwar Quadir, Executive Director of Sundarbans Academy in Khulna the report says that how long the wildlife will exist in the face of indiscriminate killing of tigers, deer and many other animals is difficult to say. In some cases the poachers in the guise of fishermen enter the forest after collecting passes from the forest department and kill wild animals.
The poachers adopt different methods to kill tigers and deer. At first they kill goats and deer and soak the dead animals with poison and use those as bait for attracting tigers. The tigers die after consuming those dead animals. The poachers also hunt crocodiles and dolphins by spreading nets in the rivers and canals of the forest.
After killing the animals the poachers collect skins, limbs, heads and teeth of the tigers, crocodiles and deer and sell those to international smugglers. The price of a skin of tiger is Taka 0.3 million and the bone of a tiger sells at Taka 0.1 million. Skins and heads of tigers, crocodiles, pythons and deer are smuggled out mainly to China, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Myanmar. The Khulna-based correspondent of the daily Gazi Moniruzzaman quoting forest department statistics, says that, at least 50 tigers were killed by hunters during the period from 1981 to 2004.
On the other hand, Green activists continue to protest setting up of the proposed 1320 megawatt coal-fired power plant at Rampal in Bagerhat as, they say, would destroy the Sundarbans which is only 14 kilometres from the project site. The environmentalists have rejected the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report on the power plant. They observed that the EIA report, prepared by the relevant department of the government, did not take into consideration most of the important aspects of the environment of the Sundarbans, its ecology, flora and fauna as well as human population.
It may be mentioned that the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) had signed a deal with the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) of India to build the power plant. The proposed project, on an area of over 1834 acres of land, is situated 14 kilometres north of the Sundarbans. It will be the country's largest power plant. Green activists have been expressing concern over the probable adverse effect on the biodiversity of the Sundarbans for quite a long time with a call to shift the proposed plant at a distant place from the forest.
Salinity and river erosion have already started taking their tolls on the green belts that surround the Sundarbans. Environmentalists fear that if corrective measures are not taken right now the green belts around the mangrove forest will face serious threat to their existence. Already excessive salinity has resulted in the deaths of large number of trees and vegetations at the coastal areas including Sarankhola and Morrelganj.
Vast tracts of land, along the coastal areas of the forest, have been devoured by river erosion. Excessive saline water and heavy deposit of sand at the roots of trees following Cyclone Sidr and Aila in 2007 and 2010 have destroyed a large number of plants and trees such as Kewra, Huila, Palm and coconut.
We suggest that if the observation made by the experts on probable environmental hazards to the Sundarbans has any basis, it should be measured urgently by the competent authority. It is not difficult to find out a suitable alternative site for the power project in the country. True, we need electricity badly for country's overall development, but surely not at the cost of our precious wonder of nature - the Sundarbans.
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