Overview
The Sundarban Tiger project is a Bangladesh Forest Department initiative that effectively started its field activities in February 2005.
The project is administered by the Forest Department and it utilizes wildlife consultants from the University of Minnesota and the Zoological Society of London to advise on project strategies and train staff. At the field level, there is a small core team made up of Forest Department personnel and Sundarbans Tiger Project staff.
History
The idea for the project was developed in 2001 during a field survey of the Bangladesh Sundarbans, including the Forest Department of Bangladesh, regional and international scientists including James L. D. Smith and K. Ullas Karanth, and the US Fish and Wildlife Services.
They realised that the Sundarbans contained probably one of the largest populations of wild tigers left in the world, and as such there was an urgent need for measures that would ensure the protection of this precious area and its tigers.
Save the Tiger Fund and US Fish and Wildlife Service, funded the first phase of work wherein some initial studies were carried out by the Forest Department of Bangladesh with the University of Minnesota. Since then other supporters of the project from within Bangladesh have been The Guide Tours Ltd and Synopsis. From outside the project has received support from the Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund and the BBC.
The project was initially research focused - there was very little information on the tigers of the Bangladeshi Sundarbans and it is hard to gain the political and funding support for a full scale tiger conservation without such information. Now from the research base, the project is evolving rapidly to also encompass capacity building and conservation awareness activities. This will help ensure that the issues illuminated by research are mitigated via conservation action on the ground.
Future
Individuals and organisations with the skills and resources are requested to partner with the Sundarbans Tiger Project. The project alone cannot conserve tigers in Bangladesh and calls for all interested people and organisations to join in, develop and implement additional projects for the conservation of tigers in Bangladesh.
Please write to Christina Greenwood on tigerdata@gmail.com if you would like to get involved or are already doing something for tiger conservation and would like to join efforts.
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