Sam Hall
06-27-2007, 11:42 PM
Tigers invade villages, kill three
From correspondents in Khulna, Bangladesh
June 26, 2007 08:32pm
TIGERS straying into villages around Bangladesh's Sundarbans mangrove forests have killed three people and some 50 cattle over the last 15 days, forest officials said today.
Police, forest guards and volunteers have been engaged to guard villages by igniting bonfires to stop the ferocious predators.
Forest officials said the tigers might have strayed into villages in search of food, which is becoming scarcer in the Sundarbans because of deforestation and human encroachment.
About three million people live in and around the Bangladesh part of the 6,000-sq km mangrove swamps.
The Forest Ministry said after conducting a tiger census in the wetlands in 2005 that only around 400 tigers are left in the Bangladesh part of the Sundarbans.
The Sundarbans mangrove swamps, which stretches into India's eastern state of West Bengal, is about 400km southwest of Dhaka and home to a wide variety of wildlife.
But its chief attraction are the tigers.
It forms a fragile ecosystem that is being ravaged by the pressures of population and weak enforcement of environmental regulations.
From correspondents in Khulna, Bangladesh
June 26, 2007 08:32pm
TIGERS straying into villages around Bangladesh's Sundarbans mangrove forests have killed three people and some 50 cattle over the last 15 days, forest officials said today.
Police, forest guards and volunteers have been engaged to guard villages by igniting bonfires to stop the ferocious predators.
Forest officials said the tigers might have strayed into villages in search of food, which is becoming scarcer in the Sundarbans because of deforestation and human encroachment.
About three million people live in and around the Bangladesh part of the 6,000-sq km mangrove swamps.
The Forest Ministry said after conducting a tiger census in the wetlands in 2005 that only around 400 tigers are left in the Bangladesh part of the Sundarbans.
The Sundarbans mangrove swamps, which stretches into India's eastern state of West Bengal, is about 400km southwest of Dhaka and home to a wide variety of wildlife.
But its chief attraction are the tigers.
It forms a fragile ecosystem that is being ravaged by the pressures of population and weak enforcement of environmental regulations.