Deer Poaching Research Paper

Pray (deer) poaching can be a threat to conserve wild tiger in Sundarbans (Bangladesh)

Anwarul Islam

Student ID: MS-140521

Forestry and Wood Technology Discipline, Khulna University, Bangladesh.

Email: [e-mail]

Introduction

At the turn of the 20th century, there were an estimated 100000 tigers living in a remarkably diverse set of habitats- from the Caspian sea in the far west of the Asia to northeast Russia and China and as far east and south as the island of Bali in Indonesia. In less than 100 years, however, the wild population is estimated to have fallen to as low as 3700. Entire sub-species such as the Caspian, Javan and Balinese tigers have gone extinct while South China tiger is critically endangered, with as few as 20 remaining in the wild. The tigers once wide distributed have shrunk by 93% and the remaining tiger range countries today are Bangladesh (106), Bhutan (150), Cambodia (50), China (50), India (1706), Indonesia (500), Laos (20), Malaysia (500), Myanmar (85), Nepal (121), Russia (360), Thailand (200)

According to the collected newspaper reports covering deer poaching in Bangladesh Sundarbans between 2003 -2008, 74% of the poachers (14 out of 19 cases) were based in Shyamnagar upazila. Deer poaching may occur due to illicit domestic demand for flesh from deer for consumption of deer flesh as a luxury food or Raj Mangsho and national and international demand for hide from deer for luxurious uses like coats, belts, vanity bags, wallets etc. are the reason for the unrelenting poaching pressure on deer in Sundarbans. Deer may be poached from any part of the Sundarbans due to the widespread distribution of forest users and current limited protection capacity of the Forest Department. Deer poachers may consist of both organized poachers, often the same criminals who are involved in tiger poaching and opportunistic poaching and the forest resource