Village response teams to help conserve tigers

20 June 2010, 18:00 PM

Staff Correspondent

Bangladesh Forest Department and Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh (WTB) has formed ten Village Tiger Response Teams (VTRT) to help conserve tigers that enter villages adjacent to the Sundarbans. The teams--eight in Chand-pai range, one in Patharghata and one in Golakhaliwill provide assistance to villagers until the forest department team reaches the spot with equipment to catch a tiger and release it in the forest. The main tasks of the VTRT are to respond to villagers' call if there is any report on tiger sighting while patrolling the area and ensure that people stay indoors during risky hours of nightfall. The team members will also control the crowd that forms when a tiger strays into a village until the forest department officials reach there with more help and equipment. If the crowd is not kept under control, there is little chance of saving a tiger from sure death. With the help of the villagers, VTRT will conduct safe operation to retrieve a dead body taken away by tiger from any village. To strengthen the concept, the WTB and forest department are now in the process of forming 18 more teams--six in Satkhira, four in Sharankhola and eight in Khulna ranges--in the most tiger prone villages under the Sundarbans Tiger Project. With the assistance of VTRT, the project aims to extend assistance to all tiger related incidents in the Sundarbans.