Going, Going, Going, Gone...

These are some of the rarest animals and birds in Bangladesh -- slow loris, jungle cats, leopard cats, civets, badgers, hornbills and green pigeons. Once they were found frequently, if not in abundance, in the wild. But with systematic destruction of forests, they have now been pushed to the verge of extinction. These animals were captured from different parts of Sri Mongol and Sylhet as they foraged into locality.

According to the Red List of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the animals in the pictures are however not endangered worldwide.

Their capture also tells sorry tales of how our evergreen forests have depleted. Slow Loris locally known as lazzabati banor (Pic No 3) lived in the mixed evergreen forest of Sylhet. This nocturnal animal lived in the upper tier of the jungle in recluse during the day, and would look for food at night. As the tall trees vanished because of illegal logging, they got exposed and could not escape humans because of their slow mobility.

Sitesh Ranjan Dev of Sri Mongol, who runs a private zoo there and is a controversial character for his alleged trade in wildlife, although there is no proof of it, claims he got these slow loris from an indigenous Khasia person who had caught them in Lawachhera forest.

Badger (Pic No 4), is a very rare animal in Bangladesh, as Dr Reza Khan, a zoologist and environmentalist, said. It is also a nocturnal animal dwelling on the ground level in mixed evergreen forests, and would feed on underground worms and roots of plants. Badgers need wide areas for foraging. But as the lower tier of forests got thin, they also got exposed. The one in the picture was caught as a result of forest depletion and no one knows what happened to its cubs or mate.

Leopard cats (Pic No 2) also used to live in mixed evergreen and Sal forests. Today they are deemed extinct in Bangladesh. Sitesh claims somebody caught them and handed them to him. But Dr Khan suspects they were brought in from India.

Jungle cats (Pic No 1) are also rarely seen in the wild because of their rarity and also because of their ability to hide. These two cubs were captured in Sri Mongol.

Civets (Pic No 5 & 6) live in the middle tier of forests which is also in a sorry state in Bangladesh. They feed on geckos, worms and eggs. Today they are endangered due to forest depletion.

Hornbills (Pic No 8) need tall trees for nesting. As such trees became a rarity, their number also dropped. And they can be easily located today and caught, as the few remaining tall trees, their only refuge, can now be easily identified.

Green pigeons (Pic No 7) are also a lost case in Bangladesh because of vanishing fig trees and hunting. These beautiful birds can hardly be seen in the wild today in this country.