Beatings spark fears for Bangladesh's tigers

We all hear about plants and animals disappearing off the face of the earth every day. We know that the polar bears and penguins are in danger because the polar ice caps are melting. Various forms of sea life are dying off because the oceans are getting warmer. And tigers in Bangladesh are growing few in number as human encroachment into their habitat puts them in contact with each other. Tigers may walk through villages in the night unnoticed. But if they walk through villages during the day, they are beaten to death.

According to the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), "the Sundarbans in Bangladesh is home to one of the largest surviving single populations of tigers in the world. However, despite being legally protected since 1974, the tiger is critically endangered."

The Sundarbans are notorious for their man-eating tigers and addressing this problem is also a key focus of ZSL’s work there. Despite their protected status, tigers continue to be killed in Bangladesh, often in responses to attacks on people.

In the most recent case, two tigers strayed from the forest into a village.

One of the tigers, a five-year-old male, had apparently got lost and hid in a shack, where he was attacked by villagers wielding sticks, spears and machetes, Thakur said.

An 18-year-old tigress was also attacked and killed.

Police have arrested one man accused of being the ringleader.

The story is not a new one in Bangladesh. There have been 14 registered cases of tigers being killed in similar circumstances since 2000. Newspaper reports suggest the real figure is closer to 30 while conservationists say it is even higher.

"According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List, there are fewer than 2,500 Bengal tigers left in the world with as few as 200 of those in Bangladesh -- the single largest population in the wild."