A visitor to the Bangladesh Travel and Tourism Fair 2007 admires the artwork promoting Bangladeshi tourism. In 2006, there were over 200,000 visitor arrivals to Bangladesh, the majority of whom were business, development or diplomatic workers.

7 Sept 2007 – www.mikeyleung.ca

The world’s largest littoral mangrove forest is in danger, say tourism operators of Bangladesh.

“If we continue to destroy the Sundarbans, then we will not have something that attracts tourists,” says Elisabeth Farhni Mansur of Guide Tours. “And we will destroy our only protection from natural disasters that come from the Bay of Bengal.”

The Sundarbans is also the home of the Bengal tiger, the animal that has widely become the mascot of Bangladesh to the outside world. Hasan Arif Rahman, a researcher with the Sundarbans Tiger Project, echoed Mansur’s message.

“As a top level carnivore, the tiger needs a large area to live,” said Rahman. “Because it is prone to habitat interference, poaching and prey depletion, there is a very high mortality rate.”

Mansur stressed the need for more solid research in the forest. As it stands, the Sundarbans is widely known to have depleted in the last 30 years and is under severe pressure from land shortage and uncontrolled economic interests. The area is also one of the biggest drawcards for international tourists, in a nation that is lowest performer only to Bhutan in South Asia in terms of visitor arrivals.

“Conservation is absolutely required for the Sundarbans forest to survive,” said Mansur. “But without conservation based on solid research, the forest will be finished. In order to have an effective conservation we need to know what to protect and how to do so.”

Mansur presented on the subject at the Tourism and Conservation in Sundarban Forest seminar of the Bangladesh Travel and Tourism Fair 2007. The seminar also had presentations from the Sundarbans Tiger Project, the Bangladesh Cetacean Diversity Project and Guide Tours.

“Unless we understand the tigers and unless we understand their needs, we will not be able to preserve the tigers. We can’t judge any of the management projects unless there is a baseline for measurement. “

Major Zia Uddin, a former freedom fighter who has now worked in the Sundarbans forest for several decades, noted that over 200,000 people are economically dependent on the Sundarbans and need some form of alternative income in order to protect the forest.

“The Sundarbans as you see it today is not the one it used to be. It has been squeezed to a few thousand square kilometers and this is the line we must draw,” he said. He also expressed dismay at the state of enforcement in the forest. “It is so unfortunate that the illegal wood logging, killing of wildlife is not in front of blind eyes, but it is in broad daylight.”

The Sundarbans is also host to several rare and important species, including Bangladesh’s most dangerous snake, the monocellate Cobra. There have also been sightings of other rare species such as clawless otters and elusive barking deer, and several species of dolphin that were, until only very recently, not known to exist in Bangladesh.