Bangladesh has spent a lot of money on tiger conservation in the past twenty years. But, they haven’t been very successful. Data from government and other projects shows that Bangladesh has used $11 million for tiger conservation. Surprisingly, the number of Bengal tigers has gone down to 114 in 2018 from 440 in 2004.
Bangladesh shares a big mangrove forest with India, and this forest is home to many animals, including Bengal tigers. In Bangladesh, the mangrove is the only place where Bengal tigers live, and they are considered endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Bengal tigers can also be found in countries near Bangladesh like India, Nepal, Bhutan, and Myanmar.
According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), tiger populations in China, Russia, India, Nepal, and Bhutan are either stable or increasing. WWF estimates there are 5,574 tigers living in the wild across 13 countries.
In 2020, the Bangladesh government made 52% of the Sundarbans (6,017 square kilometers or 2,323 square miles) protected areas, up from 23% before. Three wildlife sanctuaries were declared by the Bangladesh authority in the Sundarbans, but they were not specifically for tigers.
Mihir Kumar Doe, the forest conservator of Khulna Circle, explained, “There are three wildlife sanctuaries in the Sundarbans. The East, West, and South sanctuaries have been declared for all wildlife, but not specifically for tigers.”
According to the Bangladesh Forest Department, the country has 25 wildlife sanctuaries, but none are specifically for tigers.
When asked why there are no reserves just for tigers, Tiger Conservation Project director Abu Naser Mohsin Hossain said, “Much of the Sundarbans has been declared a protected area. We can’t set aside a specific area for tigers because they roam throughout the forest. They don’t stay in one spot. So, it’s not possible to allocate areas just for tigers. That would disrupt their natural habitats.”
He also mentioned that India has over 50 tiger reserve areas, so the Bangladesh part of the Sundarbans is technically a tiger reserve.
Bangladesh has taken several steps to conserve tigers, including the Tiger Action Plan 2009-17, Bangladesh Tiger Action Plan 2018-27, the National Tiger Recovery Program, and the Wildlife (Conservation and Security) Act, 2012.
Bangladesh has launched many projects to save Bengal tigers from 2004 to 2025. But so far, the results aren’t impressive. In 2010, there was a summit in Russia where countries with tiger habitats pledged to double the global tiger population by 2022.
They agreed to do surveys every four years to see if they were making progress, and Bangladesh is doing that. But the number of tigers isn’t going up here, unlike in Nepal and India.
While Bangladesh doesn’t have any official tiger reserves, India has 50 of them, where 80% of the world’s tigers live. One of them is the Sundarban Tiger Reserve in West Bengal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. India, Nepal, and Bhutan have set aside forest areas as tiger reserves too.
Myanmar now has the world’s largest tiger sanctuary. The Hukaung Valley Tiger Reserve has tripled in size and now covers the entire Hukaung Valley, which is about 21,970 square kilometers.
Bringing tigers to the hills in the southeast.
In 2020, authorities wanted to release tigers in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in southeast Bangladesh, near India and Myanmar. But a study showed it wouldn’t work. Hossain explained, “Except for the Sundarbans, there’s no safe place for tigers in Bangladesh. In the past, tigers lived in 17 of our 19 districts, but now it’s not possible.” He added, “We looked into it, but there are too many problems. People live there, so it would take about 20 years of planning to make it safe for both humans and tigers. So, for now, it’s not happening.”
There are doubts about the project’s success. Some activists say the feasibility study and money management issues have led to the lack of progress.
Hossain explained, “The Sundarbans tiger conservation project 2022-25 is fully funded by the Bangladesh government. We publish all project expenses on our website. In 2018, USAID didn’t give us any money. They spent it where they thought was necessary, and we couldn’t do anything about it. With the World Bank project, we conducted tiger surveys and awareness campaigns to protect tigers.”
A wildlife expert in Bangladesh, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Mongabay that the money allocated for tiger conservation should have doubled the tiger population. However, it hasn’t happened due to weak coordination between donors and government agencies and a lack of focused conservation efforts.
