Home ›› 10 Dec 2021 ›› Governance
Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Md Shahab Uddin on Thursday stressed the need for protecting the country’s forests to protect wildlife.
“Without conserving forests, we will not be able to protect wildlife. We all should realise that it is an urgent now to save wildlife,” he told the inaugural session of a workshop at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in Dhaka.
Forest Department in association with IUCN Bangladesh arranged the national result sharing and consultation workshop on fesability study of transboundary wildlife corridor in Chattogram, Chittagong Hill Tracts and Cox’s Bazar with India and Myanmar.
Speaking as the chief guest, Shahab Uddin said following the footsteps of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the government is implementing various programmes to protect wildlife and biodiversity.
Highlighting the constitutional obligation to save wildlife, he said the country’s forests now are not in real shape. “If people grab forests, those would not be the habits of wild animals. We could not protect wildlife without protecting forests,” the minister said.
Citing wildlife data of the forest department, he said a fesability study was conducted this year to identity corridors for the movement of transboundary wild animals.
Shahab Uddin hoped that it would be possible to announce the proposed Bangabandhu wildlife corridor.
Chaired by Environment, Forest and Climate Change Secretary Md Mostafa Kamal, the inaugural session of the workshop was addressed, among others, by State Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Habibun Nahar, additional secretary of the minister Iqbal Abdullah Harun, chief conservator of forests Md Amir Hosain Chowdhury, country representative of IUCN Bangladesh Raqibul Amin and conservator of forest Mollah Rezaul Karim.
National expert of corridor project Dr M Monirul H Khan made a powerpoint presentation on the occasion.
The minister said possibility of creating an inter-country uninterrupted movement or corridor for Asian elephants and Bengal tigers from India to Kasalang in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Sangu via Myanmar is being explored. If this can be done, the connection between the fragmented habitats of elephants and tigers in these three countries will be established.
The corridor will play a vital role in the reproduction of these two animals as well as in the conservation of other wildlife in the region, he told the function organized by the Department of Forests.
According to a 2016 survey by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the total number of Asian elephants in Bangladesh is about 268 and according to the 2018 survey, the total number of Bengal tigers in Bangladesh is about 114. These important animals will soon be lost from Bangladesh if immediate conservation measures are not taken.
