Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Md Shahab Uddin said the government is implementing a three-year project titled “Sunderban Tiger Conservation Project”.
Under the project, census of tigers in the Sunderbans through camera trapping for the third time; count the number of deer and pigs; conservation of tigers erecting nylon fence around 60 kilometre area of the Sunderbans and conducting research on tigers will be executed.
The minister urged all to come forward in the preservation of the Sunderbands, the living place of tigers.
The minister made this call while addressing as the chief guest an event virtually from his official residence organized by Directorate of Forest marking the World Tigers Day-2022 in Dhaka on Friday.
Presided over by Chief Conservator of forests Md Amir Hossain Chowdhury, the event was attended as the special by Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Habibunnahar, Secretary Dr Farhina Ahmed and Additional Secretary (Administration) Iqbal Abdullah Harun.
The minister said the World Tiger Day is observed on July 29 every year in the light of a conference attended by heads of 13 countries rich in tiger held at Petersburg of Russia in 2010.
This year the theme World Tiger Day is “Tigers are our pride and We all have responsibility to protect them.”
The minister said, according to the information of census of tiger conducted in the year 2017-2018 , there are 114 tigers in the Bangladesh part of Sunderbans , while according another census conducted in the year 2020-2021 there are 96 tigers in the Indian territory.
According to IUCN Global Species Red list-2020, there are 4484 tigers in the world. But it is a matter of regret that the tigers are on the verge of extinction in the word.
The minister gave a description of steps taken by the government for protection of tigers in the country. He said, according to Clause-36 of Bangladesh Wildlife ( Conservation and Security) Law - 2012 there are provision of jail for 2-7 years jail and fine of Tk at least Tk 1 lakh -10 lakh for killing tiger. There are also provision of jail upto 12 years and fine of Tk 10 lakh -15 lakh for the recurrence of such offence.
