'Animals about to die for lack of food'
Due to scanty allocation by the authorities concerned, animals in Sonakata Eco-Park in Tangargiri reserve forest in Barguna's Taltoli upazila are facing food crisis.
As no fresh allocation was given for 2017-18 fiscal year, staff of local forest beat office have to manage foods for the animals with the help of local people.
In 2011-12 fiscal year, Sonakata Eco-park was built under the Forest and Environment Ministry on about 10,000 acres of land under the 'Increase of opportunities in Eco-tourism' programme.
“We get allocation of only Tk 1.5 lakh annually from the higher authority, but we badly need over Tk 5 lakh to meet the demand for food,” Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Ajit Kumer Rudhro said.
Beat Officer Zahid Pramanik of Sakhina Beat Office said no allocation was given in the new fiscal year since July 1 for food of the animals but they continue supplying food with the help of local people.
Sonakata UP Chairman Md Sultan Farajee said the animals are about to die due to shortage of food.
The authority concerned should take immediate steps to supply food for animals before end of the fiscal year as same problem is found every year, he said.
At the beginning, there were about 200 animals of different species in the eco-park, including over 100 monkeys, 10 deer, 25 boars, 3 leopards, 25 pythons, two crocodiles, and two porcupines.
Now there are only 14 deer and two crocodiles while other animals were released to the wild on October 28 last year due to shortage of food for them.
“Three kilograms of poultry are fed to the crocodiles every two days. We have to manage food somehow when the allocation ends,” said DFO Ajit.
A tourist named Asaduzzaman Rony, 29, of Pirojpur's Mathbaria upazila was killed by a crocodile last year.
The accident took place when the victim scaled the eight-foot high wall of the crocodile enclosure and put his hand in the pond to find out if there was any crocodile there.
The victim's companions and forest guards tried to rescue the victim but failed, said Ajit.
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