Bengal tigers face shrinking refuge, food supply

The Bengal tiger has made his home in a natural mangrove swamp in the Ganges Delta known as the Sundarbans

By Environmental News Network staff

There are no royal Bengal tigers in Bangladesh's Dhaka Zoo. The only tigers in this spit of land cradled by the Bay of Bengal roam the forbidding mangrove swamps that lie south in the delta of the mighty Ganges River.

The Sundarbans, which spread across Bangladesh and India, are some of the world's most productive wetland ecosystems. Here is the only place in the world where the Bengal tiger has made his home in a natural mangrove swamp.

Threatened by poaching but more so by the lack of food, these fearsome predators have earned a reputation of being man-eaters. The tigers are known for their calculated attacks on humans, causing great distress to the 45,000-odd population who obtain permits to hunt, fish or gather honey in the forests.

A.H.M. Ali Reza, a zoologist from the University of Jahangirnagar in Dhaka, says that as many as 100 people each year are killed by tigers in the Sundarbans, although official figures reflect an average of 34 per year. Ali Reza says that only 25 percent of the tigers in the mangrove area appear to be man-eating.

The World Wide Fund for Nature, sponsor of several studies of Sundarbans tigers, has come forward to aid conservation efforts sparked through local initiatives. Sundarbans cats are a priority project for the WWF, and Bangladeshi researchers who, for years, have tried to call international attention to the fate of the tigers are rejoicing.

But conservation efforts are complicated by the very nature of the Sundarbans and the tigers that make it their home. The mangroves are of great economic importance to a poverty-stricken population who uses its resources - wood, fish, birds, herbs and honey - to eke out a meager living along the periphery of the swamp. The Sundarbans provide a living for more than 350,000 people. For them, the tiger is not a boon but rather a grave threat.

The tiger population of the Bangladeshi Sundarbans is estimated at 350 to 400 animals spread over three national parks. Across the border, India's Sundarbans National Park supports a similar population.

Due to changes in its habitat, the Bengal tiger has resorted to new prey: fishermen

In the early 1900s, the vast grasslands of the Sundarbans were unsuccessfully converted to rice fields, wiping out sambhur, gaur, buffalo and swamp deer. Due to increased flooding and the damming of a river that once fed the wetlands, salinity in the Sundarbans has increased.

Even species such as barking deer and hog deer are no longer seen in the swamp. As a result, the tiger often goes hungry, stalking rhesus monkey and wild boar when spotted deer are scarce.

Hence the man-eating habit. Researchers believe that the tigers get their taste for human flesh primarily from the half-burnt bodies that make their way down the sacred Ganges River. Upstream in India, funeral pyres are lit on the banks of the Ganges and the bodies thrown into the river for their journey into the next world.

"The tigers are extremely bold here. They will carry off fishermen napping in their boats or stalk villagers who have come to collect firewood," said Charles Santiapillai, a Sri Lankan zoologist who trains conservationists in Bangladesh.

Even if prey animals were reintroduced to the Sundarbans, the threat of poaching would still have to be controlled. Tiger skins are still lucrative trade, fetching up to US $3,000 per skin - a small fortune in this impoverished country. Tiger parts - paws, bones and genitals - are used extensively in traditional Chinese medicine.

But the biggest challenge for conservationists is to enlist the cooperation of villagers.

"It is amazing that a country like Bangladesh has managed to conserve the Sundarban tigers so far without external help," Santiapillai said.

Copyright 2000, Environmental News Network, All Rights Reserved

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University of Jahangirnagar
World Wide Fund for Nature
Sundarbans National Park
Bengal tigers
Dhaka zoo
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
  • The Sundarbans
plight of the Indian tiger

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