High funding but poor results: Bangladesh struggles with Bengal tiger conservation

Due to inefficient and inadequate measures, Bangladesh lags in achieving success in tiger conservation despite having dedicated significant funds to the effort over the last two decades.

According to data extracted from projects undertaken by the government and nongovernment organisations, the country has allocated $11 million to tiger conservation to date. Ironically, the number of Bengal tigers (Panthera tigris tigris) dropped to 114 in 2018, compared with 440 in 2004.

Bangladesh shares most (60%) of the world’s largest mangrove forest with neighboring India. This mangrove forest is the habitat of many wild animals, including the big cat. In Bangladesh, the mangrove is the only habitat for the Bengal tiger, which has been declared an endangered species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, or the IUCN.

Along with Bangladesh, Bengal tiger habitats exist in the neighboring countries of India, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar.

According to the World Wildlife Fund, in China, Russia, India, Nepal and Bhutan are either steady or growing. The World Wildlife Fund also estimates there are 5,574 tigers in the wild in 13 countries worldwide.

The Bangladesh government declared 52% of the Sundarbans (6,017 square kilometers or 2,323 square miles) as protected areas in 2020, up from 23% earlier. The Bangladesh authority declared three sanctuaries for wildlife in the Sundarbans,...

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