Tigers are in the news again, but finally we’re hearing from the conservationist side of the story. As Adam Barlow writes:

I hope, for the sake of the tigers, that there will be no further unbalanced attacks the media that are at best divisive and at worse damage tiger conservation. It is much easier to criticize other people’s efforts to save the tiger than to create solutions or come to work in the forest to help save tigers.

While we debate tiger darting in the newspapers for example, more cows and dogs have been killed in Chandpai where we were trying to collar a problem tiger. The same tiger has killed over 60 domestic animals and one person. Livestock depredation by tigers is common in the eastern Sundarbans and man-eating is rampant in the West. Surely these kinds of issues deserve more attention in the newspapers.

As recorded by the BBC news regarding Sirajul’s article “According to Raghu Chundawat, a Delhi-based wildlife scientist who is not connected to the project, any long-term suspension of the radio-collar programme would be a “disaster” for the Sundarbans, and doubts about the safety of the drugs are “absolute nonsense”.” What does it achieve to attack people’s efforts to conserve tigers in the press? I think that the Forest Department’s efforts to save the Sundarbans tigers should be highly commended. The tigers’ only hope is that people can work together in a constructive way and I ask the Bangladesh people to unite behind tiger conservation before it is too late.

For more info:

• See www.sundarbanstigerproject.info.
• The original offending article.

Tags: Bangladesh,Media,Sundarbans Tiger Project,Tigers
Categories: Editorials, Sundarbans
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