"We are witnessing a growing trend of deaths caused by tigers. Fifty people died last year, the highest number of deaths we recorded in the past 100 years, while the figure was 24 in 2007," forest conservator Tapan Dey said.
He said the loss of big cat habitats and food sources in southwestern Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest which is home to the last 440 Bengal Tigers is a reason for this number.
Dey's comments came two days after Bangladesh joined the World Tiger Day celebrations promising effective steps to save the endangered big cats and planned an effective participation in the 13-nation Tiger Conservation Summit in St Petersburg in September.
"I will attribute the phenomenon (growing number of deaths) on human intrusion in Sundarbans... men are not good food for big cats but are easy prey, while the tigers are quickly losing their main food there because of poaching," chief executive of Bangladesh Wildlife Trust Professor Anwarul Islam said.
Islam, also a senior professor of zoology department of the premier Dhaka University, said nearly 450,000 families live around the Sundarbans, a stretch of 6,017 square kilometers of forest "and their interactions with tigers are growing day by day causing the higher death rates".
He said the Trust recently carried out a survey on 800 families living around the Sundarbans with nearly half of them admitting that they had tasted the deer meats at least once in the past one year that amounts to at least 150 deer.
"The survey reflects how the tigers are losing their main food source," he said.
The last pugmark survey by the forest department and UN Development Programme (UNDP) in 2004 estimated the number of tigers to be around 440, including 21 cubs, and in Indian side of the Sundarbans the tiger population was around 270.
"According to our estimates, the Sundarbans can now accommodate as high as 400 big cats because of their squeezed habitats and food sources both for ecological and man-made reasons," wildlife expert Professor Mostafa Foroz of suburban Jahangirnagar University said.
He said the Royal Bengal tigers were found across the country even five decades ago, but they were now confined alone to the Sunderbans.
Islam, however, said the Sundarbans, 50 per cent of Bangladesh's forest cover -- was still the habitat of highest number of tiger population in a single forest zone.
However, it was exposed to ecological danger because salinity intrusion and abnormally frequent natural disasters like cyclones or tidal surges thought to be caused by climate change.
"Tigers play a key role in maintaining biodiversity, food chain and ecology of forest... Sundarbans, one of world's most resourceful forests, would have been extinct without tigers," junior minister for environment Hassan Mahmud told a Tiger Day conference two days ago.
The tiger is treated as one of the most critically endangered animals fast disappearing from the world. Experts estimated the current population of all the six sub-species of the big cat to be about 3,200 down from around 100,000 in 1900.
Tropical Bangladesh, however, drafted a tougher anti-poaching law as part of a growing conservation campaign to protect its endangered wildlife -- including the Royal Bengal Tiger and its main prey, the deer population, for "repeated offenders".
The country's existing Wildlife Conservation Act of 1974 prescribed maximum two years of imprisonment for a poacher or smuggler alongside a penalty amounting to only Taka 2,000 taka (USD 30).
According to an International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) study more than 13 species have become extinct in Bangladesh over the past 40 years, and over 100 species are now considered endangered or critically endangered.
Dey's comments came two days after Bangladesh joined the World Tiger Day celebrations promising effective steps to save the endangered big cats and planned an effective participation in the 13-nation Tiger Conservation Summit in St Petersburg in September.
"I will attribute the phenomenon (growing number of deaths) on human intrusion in Sundarbans... men are not good food for big cats but are easy prey, while the tigers are quickly losing their main food there because of poaching," chief executive of Bangladesh Wildlife Trust Professor Anwarul Islam said.
Islam, also a senior professor of zoology department of the premier Dhaka University, said nearly 450,000 families live around the Sundarbans, a stretch of 6,017 square kilometers of forest "and their interactions with tigers are growing day by day causing the higher death rates".
He said the Trust recently carried out a survey on 800 families living around the Sundarbans with nearly half of them admitting that they had tasted the deer meats at least once in the past one year that amounts to at least 150 deer.
"The survey reflects how the tigers are losing their main food source," he said.
The last pugmark survey by the forest department and UN Development Programme (UNDP) in 2004 estimated the number of tigers to be around 440, including 21 cubs, and in Indian side of the Sundarbans the tiger population was around 270.
"According to our estimates, the Sundarbans can now accommodate as high as 400 big cats because of their squeezed habitats and food sources both for ecological and man-made reasons," wildlife expert Professor Mostafa Foroz of suburban Jahangirnagar University said.
He said the Royal Bengal tigers were found across the country even five decades ago, but they were now confined alone to the Sunderbans.
Islam, however, said the Sundarbans, 50 per cent of Bangladesh's forest cover -- was still the habitat of highest number of tiger population in a single forest zone.
However, it was exposed to ecological danger because salinity intrusion and abnormally frequent natural disasters like cyclones or tidal surges thought to be caused by climate change.
"Tigers play a key role in maintaining biodiversity, food chain and ecology of forest... Sundarbans, one of world's most resourceful forests, would have been extinct without tigers," junior minister for environment Hassan Mahmud told a Tiger Day conference two days ago.
The tiger is treated as one of the most critically endangered animals fast disappearing from the world. Experts estimated the current population of all the six sub-species of the big cat to be about 3,200 down from around 100,000 in 1900.
Tropical Bangladesh, however, drafted a tougher anti-poaching law as part of a growing conservation campaign to protect its endangered wildlife -- including the Royal Bengal Tiger and its main prey, the deer population, for "repeated offenders".
The country's existing Wildlife Conservation Act of 1974 prescribed maximum two years of imprisonment for a poacher or smuggler alongside a penalty amounting to only Taka 2,000 taka (USD 30).
According to an International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) study more than 13 species have become extinct in Bangladesh over the past 40 years, and over 100 species are now considered endangered or critically endangered.
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