Number of tigers on the decline

12 May 2010, 18:00 PM

Unb, Dhaka

The number of tigers in the wild continues to decline, with only around 3,500 wild tigers remaining in the whole world. With an estimated 300 to 500 tigers, the Sundarbans has an opportunity to contribute significantly to the conservation of tigers and biodiversity that they represent. However, to make this happen, it requires participation of multiple stakeholders to bring about awareness of tiger conservation. This was disclosed at a workshop at the conference room of Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh (WTB) yesterday. WTB organised a workshop for various stakeholder groups to get feedback on an initial work to develop a strategy from the workshop that it organised in March. The participants included representatives from Forest Department, Department of Environment, Ministry of Education, other related government organisations, local Sundarbans community whose lives are directly affected by tigers, national and international organisations engaged in conservation work, newspaper and electronic media who can help raise awareness about conservation of our national animal and individuals who have insight knowledge about tiger and the Sundarbans. The conservation education and community outreach workshop is designed and coordinated by WTB's Sundarbans Tiger Project with the funding support from US Fish and Wildlife Service. Chairman of WTB Enayetullah Khan inaugurated the workshop, saying that tiger conservation has become an international issue now and WTB wants to work with its other partners to address the threats to conserve our national animal. WTB's CEO Prof Mohammad Anwarul Islam in his speech said such workshops are essential for developing partnerships with other organisations and for jointly working for tiger conservation. He said based on the outcome of this workshop, WTB will form a strategy that will work in line with Bangladesh Tiger Action Plan (BTAP) to conserve tigers. Earlier, WTB helped the government develop BTAP, which was approved by the Ministry of Environment and Forest in January this year.