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TANGENTS

Our Biodiversity

BYIHTISHAM KABIR
The physical size of Bangladesh may be small compared to other countries, but what our land lacks in size it makes up in biodiversity. There are several reasons for this wealth, the most important being climate and terrain. Our wet and warm climate encourages a profusion of life, unlike lands with extreme cold, heat or dryness. The gentle terrain, with rich topsoil, is conducive to many types of plants, and they in turn assist a myriad other species. Thus it is easy for many forms of life to conceive, propagate and thrive here.
Take our avian life for example. We have around 700 species of birds in this land, counting both resident and migrant species. This number compares favourably with much larger countries. Unfortunately we have lost some species - such as Saurus crane, Bengal florican and the peacock - due to hunting and habitat loss. A pleasant surprise: the list of birds seen in Bangladesh has grown steadily in recent years thanks to dedicated ornithologists who work tirelessly in the fields, jungles and water bodies.
Mammals in the wild are not very visible in Bangladesh - just like the world over - because they have been under human pressure for thousands of years. Even so, we have 127 species of mammals in Bangladesh. The Bengal tiger is of course the best-known. We are also rich in primates. Our ten primate species range from the hoolock gibbon, the only ape in Southern Asia, to the slow loris, a distant relative of Madagascar's exotic lemurs.
Our rivers and lakes abound in freshwater fish species. I experienced our variety firsthand while visiting Nijhum Dwip last year, where I sampled a delightful array of fishes I never knew existed. These were caught
at the mouth of the Meghna where thousands of fishermen earn their livelihood. The rivers of Bangladesh hold about 260 species of fish.
Insect species are difficult to count and I doubt if a definitive figure exists for Bangladesh, but one area of ongoing work is cataloguing butterflies. Up to now, 305 species of butterflies have been recorded here, including the beautiful Pachliopta hector, but experts estimate the number to exceed 400 once cataloguing is completed. Included in this list is an endemic butterfly, the Sundarban crow. In the entire world, this butterfly is found only in Katka and Kochikhali of Sundarban.
Let's not forget our slimy friends. We have 64 species of amphibians and 174 species of reptiles sharing our land and water. Among the amphibians are 45 species of frogs and toads and 29 species of turtles. Our largest frog is the kola bang which can reach up to six inches. Among our turtles is a species named after my hometown, the Pangshura Sylhetensis or Sylhet red-roofed turtle.
What about plants? Our floral biodiversity is a large subject and deserves its own column. But I want to leave you here with one example. For many decades, it was thought that Sundarban has 334 plant species. This was based on a study done in 1903. Recently, thanks to research done for a recent PhD thesis at Jahangirnagar University, Sundarban's plant count has been revised upward to 528 species.
We have been blessed with a land rich in life forms. It is up to us to study, learn, and conserve them. As the song says, "You don't know what you got till it's gone."
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