As a measure to control the recent rise in poaching, the government has taken a decision to ban certain kinds of water vessels, mostly medium and large engine-run boats and trawlers from entering the Sundarbans.
“We are planning to put the ban into effect in coming season [September-February]. Under this, all kinds of medium and large engine-run boats and trawlers will be prevented from entering in the forest,” said Yunus Ali, chief conservator of forest (CCF).
The proposed ban will also bar the authorities from allowing permit to local people who extract Nipa Palm from the forest.
According to the CCF, this will be done because poachers, disguised as Nipa cultivators, enter the forest on big boats and carry out wildlife and timber.
However, the ban will not affect those who collect fish, crab and honey in small boats, Yunus said.
The decision has been taken right after a survey found that there are only 106 Royal Bengal Tigers left in the world’s biggest Mangrove forest. The number of the tigers went from 440 to 106 in just a decade.
A series of discussions is being held with the stakeholders – including the Forest Department, RAB, Coast Guard, Navy and the administration of the three adjacent districts of the forest – regarding finalizing the ban.
According to the Forest Department, around 300,000 people living in the forest’s periphery are directly dependent on its resources.
Currently, these people enter the Sundarbans by taking permission from 16 forest stations located in the periphery, which earns the government Tk50-60 crore as revenue annually.
However, experts have voiced concerns that the ban may harm the forest’s ecology as certain trees – such as the Nipa Palm – require regular extraction for regeneration.
Farid Uddin Ahmed, executive director of the Aranyak Foundation, said that if the broaches of Nipa Palm are not cut regularly, the species will die out gradually.
However, Ishtiaq Uddin Ahmed, former CCF and now the country representative of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Bangladesh, said that imposing ban on Nipa Palm harvest for five to 10 years would not create any problems.
He welcomed the government’s move to impose ban on the entry of large boats and the Nipa Palm harvest as these would curb poaching.
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