{"id":20119980,"date":"2023-08-18T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-18T02:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thethirdpole.net\/?p=119980"},"modified":"2023-09-09T03:06:27","modified_gmt":"2023-09-08T21:36:27","slug":"exclusive-bangladesh-pauses-plan-to-reintroduce-tigers-in-chittagong-hills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/nature\/exclusive-bangladesh-pauses-plan-to-reintroduce-tigers-in-chittagong-hills\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: Bangladesh pauses plan to reintroduce tigers in Chittagong Hills"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As Bangladesh seeks to increase the number of endangered tigers in the country, officials are rethinking a reintroduction plan that would involve bringing the big cat back to the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), The Third Pole has learned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plan, which made headlines<\/a> in 2020, would have entailed releasing tigers in the remote area of south-east Bangladesh, which borders India and Myanmar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, a feasibility study has found that conditions are not currently suitable for a successful reintroduction. While there has been no official announcement to this effect, The Third Pole\u2019s conversations with key officials have revealed that the Bangladesh Forest Department appears to have stepped back from the plan for the time being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Map: The Third Pole<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTwo things \u2013 habitat and prey \u2013 need to be considered before releasing tigers in the CHT,\u201d said Md Amir Hosain Chowdhury, the chief conservator of forests at Bangladesh\u2019s Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. \u201cWe have found that the habitat is not suitable right now and there is not enough prey for tigers in the hill tracts. Human settlements are a big problem there, too. So, we have retreated from our plan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tigers were once widespread in Bangladesh. As recently as the 1930s, they were reportedly present in 11 out of 17 districts in the country. \u201cHowever, widespread hunting and forest depletion have reduced the tiger\u2019s range and numbers,\u201d says Bangladesh\u2019s Tiger Action Plan for 2018-2027<\/a>, prepared by the country\u2019s forest department as a blueprint for tiger recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only resident tiger population in Bangladesh is found in the Sundarbans, the world\u2019s largest mangrove ecosystem formed by the confluence of the Ganga<\/a>, Brahmaputra<\/a> and Meghna rivers in the Bay of Bengal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020, when Chowdhury revealed<\/a> the government\u2019s intentions to reintroduce tigers to the Chittagong hills, he said<\/a> that the area \u201cwas the host of a huge number of tiger populations\u201d in the past. The announcement was consistent with the government\u2019s Tiger Action Plan<\/a> for 2018-2027, which listed ensuring a \u201cviable tiger population in the Chittagong Hill Tracts\u201d as a low-priority goal, and indicated required resources of 100 million Bangladeshi taka (around USD 914,000) over a 10-year period. But the plan has evidently been put on hold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n