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BITTER TRUTH

Vote for the Sundarbans: Wealth of beauty in silence needs to be protected
***While we urge people to vote for the Sundarbans to include it as one of the new 7 wonders of the world, we can't just rest on our laurels. With the Sundarbans as the main attractive destination for tourists, Bangladesh can earn much more than the $78.3 million it earned in 2010.***
Despite the fact that the government has launched a hectic campaign to vote for the Sundarbans to include it as one of the world's new
seven natural wonders, and succeeded to a great extent, much remains to be done to enhance the beauty and attraction of this mangrove forest as well as protect the regions iconic animals from being threatened with extinction.
Over the last few years the number of tigers in India and Bangladesh has been falling dramatically. From an official census of 4,300 tigers in India in 1989, it is now known that India has 1,411 tigers left. In Bangladesh an unofficial figure now puts the tiger population at about 450.
The enchanting stories about the Sundarbans — its emerald mangrove forests that are an unspoiled showcase for the diversity of life, its wildlife, rivers, canals and creeks flowing deep inside the forests have always drawn attention.
Since 2000, guided tour operators with their custom-built vessels have allowed the tourists to stay in the forests for several days with food, sweet water, and cozy accommodation. This has attracted tourists from home and abroad to have a
glimpse of the beauty in silence.
In 2006, when I was traveling in a group that included 20 tourists and nature lovers, we were told that one could have the rare fortune of seeing a tiger in the wild in about one in 100 visits.
While cruising through one of the narrow creeks, branching out from both sides of the main river, all of them naturally created, we saw a herd of spotted deer near the bank. Next morning we went to Katka watch tower. To our utter disappointment, we saw no wild life, except in the afternoon when a herd of spotted deer came to drink water from the sweet water pond dug for them near the Katka forest range office. We were told by the forest guards that tigers abound in areas of the forest where prey density is high. And in that light Katka and Burigoalini are ideal zones.
The Sundarban's Royal Bengal Tigers are now a vanishing breed, disappearing faster than people would have expected. About 18 lakh people living around the borders of the Sundarbans depend on the forest for their livelihood as mowali (honey collector), bawali (golpata and wood collector), jawali (fishermen), and not infrequently
these people backed by armed poachers and greedy smugglers hunt the majestic animals because their pelts and body parts fetch princely prices in the black market.
There are fewer than 450 Royal Bengal Tigers remaining, according to an unofficial estimate of the forest officials in the Sundarbans. They say that at least 38 tigers were killed between 1986 and 2000. 7 Royal
Bengal tigers were killed during the cyclonic storm of November 1988.The A UN-sponsored study on the
Sundarbans is somewhat frightening. The declining cover of mangroves -- which account for nearly 90% of marine species in the region --is the main cause for increasing soil erosion and silt accretion, which in turn pose a threat to the Subdarbans.
Using satellite imagery, the study reveals that the rate of coastal erosion is higher than the rate of accretion in the estuarine zone. In other words, the entire island sys-
tem is faced with a rapid loss of land area, flooding and salinisation of drinking water. The mean sea level in the Sundarbans has shown a steady increase at the rate of 3.14 mm every year, much higher than the global average of 2 mm per year.
Given the voracious human appetite for land, forest resources like wood, golpata and honey, and unrestricted exploitation of different species of fish through shrimp culture near the coastal belt, keeping the tigers and other wild life in the tranquil zone of the forest would be nothing short of a miracle.
Anyone who has visited the Sundarbans must say without reservation that this emerald natural forest, a big carbon sink, spread over such a vast area has justifiable claim to be included as one of the 7 new wonders of the world.
In the lush green territory of the coastal belt of the Bay of Bengal, there is hardly a break in the canopy of trees — sundari, gewa, goran, kewra etc. — and virtually every acre is alive with the cacophony of insects, birds, and monkeys. The majestic Royal Bengal tigers and spotted deer on the land and crocodiles in the rivers seem to be an irresistible attraction for nature
lovers and tourists.
Unbelievable it may sound, but it is true as I saw, on my way to and from the Sundarbans, thousands of small trawlers were catching shrimp fries in the river Passur and Shela gang. But these catches do not only bring up shrimp fries, they include fries of other species, which are discarded or tossed back into the river when they are already dead. This has caused severe depletion of marine resources. Besides, shrimp farming as practiced now in the coastal belt is particularly damaging to the mangrove forests that soften the sea's constant battering of shoreline.
While we urge people to vote for the Sundarbans to include it as one of the new 7 wonders of the world, we can’t just rest on our laurels. With the Sundarbans as the main attractive destination for tourists, Bangladesh can earn much more than the $78.3 million it earned in 2010. The main thrust of the country’s effort is to build a national management strategy for protecting the Sundarban forest along with its wildlife, mainly tigers. At the same time, the government has to assess very seriously if the proposed power plant to be set up in Mongla will pose a threat to the ecology of the Sundarbans.
The writer is a former teacher of Physics and Controller of Examinations, BUET.
E-mail aukhandk@gmail.com