Save the guest(?) leopards
With the onset of winter Bangladesh becomes a busy arena, making the most of the mild temperature, which lasts for merely three months. “The winter birds” start to appear; many sharing our food while many more ending up as food on our plates. This year we had the added attraction of the general election, one of the most iconic events in the history of the country. Amidst this entire hullabaloo the nature lovers were on their tracks chasing their wild dreams in the forests and coastal areas of Bangladesh.
The naturalist are out in the open imbibing the natural beauty that Bangladesh has to offer -- some call Bangladesh a paradise for photographers. But little has been done in the field of awareness programmes on wildlife conservation that our Forest Department (FD) and development community are so ardently investing their time and money on.
On 1st February last a strayed leopard was killed in the Kurigram area some 4/5 kilometers inside Bangladesh from the Assam border and displayed as a trophy. Further west in the Thakurgaon area, within three days, one more leopard was killed and tied to a tree in one of the villages in Ranishankail. Back in 2004 two leopards with cubs were seen in Dimla upazila, Nilphamari area. One was chased out while the other took shelter in a bamboo cluster. It attacked the panicked villager before the police in Chatnai, Dimla, shot it.
The forest department being the custodian of the forest and wildlife (as per the Bangladesh Wildlife Preservation Act of 1974) are obliged to save the endangered species and take necessary measures. The cases of strayed leopards in the North Bengal region is repeating itself and it should be mandatory for the on-duty forest department personnel and rangers in the area to trace their point of entry and devise a preliminary action plan, or else the trespassers will continue to meet a fatal end. For leopards to walk around or bask in the sun in wheat/paddy/mustard fields is anything but natural to create panic amongst the residents of the area.
We recently made a preliminary survey of the area and found traces of hair and pugmarks (looked like that of a cub) where the leopard was found lying in the mustard field in Baghdanga village, Kurigram. Whereas, in Thakurgaon, Ranishankail area the leopard was found 12 to 14 kilometers inside Bangladesh from the Indian border lying in the wheat field. The good news is, in both instances the local police were informed to which they responded urgently but refused to shoot the leopards. Had the sensitized policemen been equally trained in managing the situation with dexterity the leopards could have been saved.
According to local public opinion in Thakurgaon . …"the leopard was smuggled across the border by some traders in a tranquillized condition and once it gained consciousness the traders out of fear let go of it and the 'bagh' languishing in the area was spotted and killed”. Yet the villagers have not reported any loss of cattlehead or any domestic animals in the recent past, said the forest ranger. The question remains what were the leopards feeding on, as guests in this region? Before the sentinels of the forest buy such stories they need to survey the area thoroughly for traces of its habitation. The local people living in a tense environment have lost sleep.
The thinning of the forest area, the felling of large trees, the expansion of the tea gardens on both sides of the border, causing disruption, may have initiated the leopards to stray from their habitat. Given the benefit of the doubt, they may well be living in the Bangladesh border periphery. Adult leopards move as solitary animal and scale trees easily unlike tigers. It's not unlikely that they were seen in the fields, their natural places for stalking.
Our effort should be to create awareness amongst the people not to panic on seeing wildlife because that in turn makes the animal go amuk and in self-defence run helter skelter causing destruction. All animals are more afraid of humans than we can fathom.
We in Bangladesh should feel lucky that the leopards are reappearing in our territory, which disappeared almost 35 years ago due to habitat loss and indiscriminate killing for their skins. The last, our family personally witnessed one, was in the Sylhet Kaliti Tea Estate gardens, in December 1972. Efforts should be made to protect them rather kill. The presence of big cats is felt in the Chittagong hill tracts area. The traces of Bengal tiger and/or leopard along the Burma-Bangladesh border will not surprise the conservationists either.
As recent as January last, it was noted that large trees from the core forest area of Lawachhara been felled under the supervision of one muscleman (on a motorbike) in the region. Should one assume that the muscle power has begun to flex again…? The only habitat of the Hoolock gibbons is on the wane. The laying of gas pipeline through the national park, the seismic survey by a oil company followed by an outbreak of fire are good enough disturbance to the habitats of this region. Often Commando Survival Exercise (CSE) is conducted by the Army including installation vehicles and personnel mobilizations inside the national park, which is a protected area. Should we say these do not disturb the flora and fauna of the forest? According to Daily Star report of 23rd February last, IUCN has clarified that the seismic survey was not harmful to Lawachhara Reserve Forest. In terms of wildlife conservation what is harmful, then?
The unabated human tiger conflict is continuing in the Sundarbans. According to the local media, cases of 1-2 tiger victims during winter were reported almost every month beginning October 2008, the last victim taken was on 17th February last.
If we are to save the wildlife in its natural habitat, conservation should become a key word amongst the people of Bangladesh and taught at an early age in schools for the future generation to learn the right meaning and importance of conservation.
We cannot afford to risk our heritage sites. Let us not allow Bangladesh to become a killing field of guest birds and wildlife. Unless Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) in collaboration with the Forest Department takes a strong stand to protect its forests and distinguish what is damaging for our long-term survival, and at the cost of what is irreplaceable, the indiscriminate experiments, exploration and extraction will continue to the extinction of the endangered.
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