Bring a dog and carry a big stick. That鈥檚 Monirul Khan鈥檚 advice to people venturing into the Sunderbans mangrove forest, one of the tiger鈥檚 last strongholds, in search of food. Dogs provide early warning of a tiger鈥檚 approach, and if a man-eater pounces, a big stick鈥� well, it鈥檚 better than nothing.
Khan, of Jahangirnagar University in Dhaka, Bangladesh, is working to minimise tiger-human conflict in the Sunderbans. 鈥淭he use of pet dogs is very effective in reducing tiger attacks,鈥� he says.
In a report compiled for the Save the Tiger Fund and published this week, he estimates tiger numbers in the Bangladeshi part of the Sunderbans at around 200, more or less the same as it has been for 20 years. With the Indian Sunderbans home to some 100 to 150 tigers, the forest represents one of the largest unfragmented populations in the world. 鈥淭he terrain is very rough, so the tigers have natural protection,鈥� Khan says.
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That鈥檚 more than can be said for Chinese tigers, under renewed threat as the government contemplates reopening the trade in tiger parts. 鈥淚t will be a waste if the resources of dead tigers are not used for traditional medicine,鈥� Wang Wei of the department of wildlife conservation of the State Forestry Administration told the China Daily on Tuesday. The announcement comes after Chinese proposals to raise captive tigers for trade were rejected at last week鈥檚 meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. 鈥淚t would open the market to poachers, and encourage belief in traditional Chinese medicine, which has no scientific basis,鈥� Khan says.
