DHAKA — On Jan. 7, 2024, in a rural space of northwestern Bangladesh, a nilgai, the most important species of Asian antelope, crossed the border from India.
It by no means crossed again.
When villagers in Ranisankail subdistrict, Thakurgaon district, discovered concerning the nilgai, also referred to as the blue bull, “they chased the animal and caught it,” villager Raihan Alam Chowdhury informed Mongabay.
“When the information unfold, excited villagers flocked to the location and slaughtered the blue bull. Later, the villagers shared the meat of the animal and consumed it,” he added.
A number of weeks earlier, one other nilgai narrowly escaped an identical destiny. It, too, had meandered over from the Indian facet of the border, on Nov. 23, 2023. Thankfully for this particular person, although, it was noticed by Bangladesh border guards, who caught it with the assistance of locals.
“Later, the nilgai was handed over to the Forest Division,” mentioned Nur Mohammad, a resident of Baliadangi, additionally in Thakurgaon district.
The presence of the 2 nilgais in Bangladesh paints a hopeful image for the species Boselaphus tragocamelus, regardless of their blended fates. The nilgai isn’t thought of threatened on the IUCN Purple Listing, given its ample populations in India, Nepal and Pakistan (and launched populations within the U.S. and Mexico). However in Bangladesh, the blue bull was declared extinct within the Nineteen Thirties, almost a century in the past.
In a 2023 research, researchers in Bangladesh scoured media reviews to determine 13 cases of nilgais coming into the nation’s northwest — largely from India but additionally from Nepal — between 2018 and 2022. Traditionally, northwestern Bangladesh and the neighboring Indian state of West Bengal fashioned the easternmost vary of the species, the place the Brahmaputra and Ganga rivers served as a pure barrier to their eastward growth. The animals as soon as abounded within the sal forests and floodplains of what are at the moment the districts of Dinajpur and Rangpur, each bounded by the 2 nice rivers.
However it was the lack of these habitats, coupled with unchecked searching, that drove the nilgais regionally extinct, mentioned Sarwar Alam, principal wildlife investigator with the Bangladesh workplace of the IUCN, the worldwide wildlife conservation authority.
Now, nevertheless, their forays again into their historic habitats point out that Bangladesh has room to as soon as once more host nilgais inside its borders. The authors of the latest research recommend that native authorities ought to begin pondering of reintroducing the species, which they describe as being simple to maintain, within the northwestern and central moist deciduous patches of the nation.
Alam agreed, saying a protected space may very well be established within the northwestern districts close to the border with India, the place there are nonetheless giant swaths of undisturbed pure panorama. Any reintroduction of the species would additionally should be carried out in tandem with an academic marketing campaign to stop the nilgais being hunted and killed for meals.
Abdur Rahman, a resident of Ranisankail, the place villagers killed the nilgai in January, mentioned lots of the antelopes cross over annually, however solely a handful of circumstances are reported; more often than not, locals catch and kill the animals for his or her meat.
Taslima Khatun, an officer with the Forest Division’s Thakurgaon vary, mentioned the division has solely a rudimentary program in place to discourage the killing of nilgais.
“After we go to the bordering areas of the northwestern districts, we ask folks to not kill the nilgais coming from India,” she informed Mongabay.
Ishtiaq Uddin Ahmad, former chief conservator of forests and Bangladesh’s former nation consultant to the IUCN, mentioned there must be undisturbed forest areas and a few administration measures to revive the nilgai inhabitants in Bangladesh.
“Nilgais may very well be reintroduced right here in in-situ situation, however the antelope should be protected, making certain its habitat, meals, and water,” he mentioned.
Quotation:
Hasan, S., Das, R. R., & Akash, M., (2023). Current incursions of nilgais (Boselaphus tragocamelus) into Bangladesh, a former vary nation. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.internet/publication/372009482
This article by Rafiqul Islam was first printed by Mongabay.com on 20 March 2024. Lead Picture: Nilgais are the most important antelope species in Asia. Picture by Jakub Hałun through Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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