By IANS
Dhaka : The famed Royal Bengal tigers have gone missing from the southeastern part of the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest that took the main blow of the cyclone that hit Bangladesh last week.
While no dead tiger has been spotted yet, 23 carcasses of deer have been found.
A fourth of the 600,000 hectare Sundarbans forest area that straddles India’s West Bengal state and Bangladesh has been badly damaged by Cyclone Sidr. It would be difficult to grow trees again on roughly 85 percent of the land, forest officials told The Daily Star.
As per an official claim made in October 2004, the number of tigers in Bangladesh’s mangrove swamps was 419, marking a rise of 50 since 1994.
Both India and Bangladesh have been cooperating with the UN as well as international environment and conservation agencies for improving conditions in the Sundarbans and making them habitable for the Royal Bengal tigers.
The Sundarbans are a prime tourist destination but tour operators fear that the damage to the ecology and the infrastructure due to the cyclone might keep tourists away.
Hasan Mansur, president of the Tour Operators Association of Bangladesh, said both local and foreign tourists would be reluctant to travel to the area.
“I am quite sure the memory of this cyclone will haunt tourists travelling to the Sundarbans for some time,” he said.
Faridul Haque, managing director of Tour Planners, backed his view.
“We have already cancelled the next five trips to the Sundarbans as it would be irrational to operate such tours in those areas at this time after the catastrophe. We want to show our sympathy to the affected people of the region where we operate,” Haque said.
November is usually the start of the peak tourist season with around 3,000 visitors a month in the area. However, last year business suffered due to the political turmoil in the country.
“When we were just thinking about recovering from last year’s losses by operating some extra tours this year, natural fury produced this disaster,” said a tour operator.