- In one of several such crackdowns, forest authorities in Bangladesh recently rescued 48 animals — including endangered species — from an illegal mini zoo in Mymensingh.
- The animals were found in poor health, confined to cramped cages, and were reportedly sourced from poachers over a decade ago.
- The Forest Department’s Wildlife Crime Control Unit (WCCU) coordinated the rescue operation, transporting the animals to safari parks and eco-parks for rehabilitation, while some were released into the wild without adequate research.
- While the WCCU’s efforts are commendable, concerns persist regarding the adequacy of local rehabilitation centers, many of which lack necessary veterinary support and infrastructure to properly care for rescued wildlife.
Last month, 48 animals — including endangered species like Asian black bears (Ursus thibetanus), greater adjutant storks (Leptoptilos dubius) and Bengal slow lorises (Nycticebus bengalensis) — were found to be kept captive, all in a debilitated condition, at an illegally established mini zoo in Mymensingh in north-central Bangladesh.
On April 8, the Forest Department’s Wildlife Crime Control Unit (WCCU) team and a few local volunteers, led by wildlife inspector Nargis Sultana, rescued the animals from the mini zoo, located about 124 kilometers (77 miles) north of Bangladesh’s capital city, Dhaka.
Nargis briefed Mongabay on the condition in which she found the captive animals. One of the bears, she said, suffered from severe injuries while the other animals were served rotten feed, and their accommodations were uncomfortably congested.
“Those animals, suspected to be collected from poachers, were [brought to] the menagerie more than a decade ago when they were young. They have grown up, but their cages were never [changed to larger ones],” Nargis told Mongabay.
Since its inception in 2012, the WCCU has stepped up efforts to rescue wildlife from poachers and traffickers, backed by the Wildlife (Conservation and Protection) Law and aided by committed forest officials and volunteers.
Corrupt political influence had long shielded illegal menageries in Bangladesh, but the situation has changed after the fall of the authoritarian regime in August 2024. Since then, the Forest Department has rescued wildlife by busting several illegal menageries in districts far from their natural habitats.
While wildlife conservationists commend WCCU’s rescue drives, concerns regarding the future of the confiscated animals remain. Many of these animals were either released to forests that the Forest Department officials find to be ‘suitable environment’ or placed in Gazipur or Dulhazara safari parks for rehabilitation.
Better placement needed for captive animals
Between August 2024 and April this year, the Forest Department rescued at least 336 animals from illegal menageries from the northern Dinajpur and Bogura districts, north-central Mymensingh and Sherpur districts, central Gazipur and Shariatpur districts, and the hilly south-eastern Rangamati district.
The rescued animals are from diverse habitats. For example, the Asiatic black bears, capped langurs (Trachypithecus pileatus), sambar deer (Rusa unicolor) and Bengal slow lorises are native to the hilly forests of Chittagong and Sylhet regions.
Meanwhile, spotted deer (Axis axis) and leopard cats (Prionailurus bengalensis) are found in the Sundarbans, while common otters (Lutra lutra), Indian crested porcupines (Hystrix indica), marsh crocodiles (Crocodylus palustris) and Indian roofed turtle (Pangshura tecta) inhabit the wetlands, floodplains and rivers across the country.
According to the 2015 IUCN Red List for Bangladesh, all of these species — except the spotted deer and the Indian roofed turtle — are critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable in the country.
On April 9, Nargis and her team raided another illegal menagerie in Sherpur district in northern Bangladesh. They rescued 17 animals, including a Bengal fox (Vulpes bengalensis), a common plan civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus), an Indian python (Python molurus), and a few rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) and spotted deer.
All the animals but the python and the macaques were soon released into the nearby Madhutila eco-park.
Along with the 48 animals rescued from Mymensingh, the Forest Department transported the snake and the monkeys to Gazipur Safari Park.
“None of them seemed able to survive in the wild,” Nargis said.
The IUCN guidelines for the placement of confiscated animals says that any release of captive wild animals into the wild must happen only after thorough screening to avoid ecological harm.
The mortality rate among released animals is often high due to poor survival skills, weak health or unsuitable habitat. If released outside their natural range, they risk becoming invasive and a threat to native biodiversity. Moreover, those possibly exposed to diseases in captivity may spread infections to the wild population.
In case a sick animal has very low chances of survival or has an incurable disease, the guidelines suggest euthanasia, a method of painlessly killing an animal.
How good are the rehabilitation centers?
The WCCU officials said they were aware of the IUCN guidelines. Instead of releasing a sick Asian black bear rescued from the Shopnopuri amusement park in Dinajpur, they transported it 285 km (177 mi) south to the Gazipur Safari Park for veterinary care, said wildlife inspector Abdullah As Sadeque, one of the rescuers.
The bear could have been rehabilitated at the Rajshahi Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre — built under the World Bank-funded Strengthening Regional Cooperation for Wildlife Protection (SRCWP) project — located 170 km (106 mi) south of the amusement park, if a veterinary doctor had been available there, Sadeque said.
“We have to treat sick animals in one enclosure. The remaining six have [will be] abandoned,” said another wildlife inspector Jahangir Kabir.
The same situation prevails at the Khulna Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Center, also built under the SRCWP project.
“Recently, a rescued crocodile was transferred to this center, but we cannot provide the necessary care in the absence of a veterinary doctor,” said Mofizur Rahman Chowdhury, a Forest Department staff member.
Another SRCWP wildlife rescue center Jankichara in Moulvibazar, Sylhet district, too, remained abandoned until the Bangladesh chapter of the German loris conservation agency Plumploris and Creative Conservation Alliance renovated some of its enclosures in 2021.
For proper rehabilitation of the vulnerable Bengal slow lorises and capped langurs, the Forest Department places the animals in care of the two conservation groups.
Primatologist Hassan Al Razi Chayan, project manager at Plumploris in Bangladesh, explained how his 17-member team handles rescued slow lorises.
Before the final release, his team keeps the treated animals in a semi-natural enclosure. “There, they can learn how to forage and survive on their own in the wild,” Chayan said, noting that wild animals, when held captive for an extended period, become accustomed to served food.
A 2017 study advocates wildlife conservation to be intimately connected with rescue, recovery or rehabilitation, releases, and research.
As part of their research, the Plumploris team tags the released animals with radio collars to track and monitor their movements and behavior.
Chayan said that he recommends the Forest Department establish a separate unit with skilled manpower to rescue and rehabilitate wildlife. “A rescue and rehabilitation center could be used for educational purposes,” he added.
Authority’s move
Regarding the poor capacity of the rescue centers in the country, Syeda Rizwana Hasan, advisor to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, told Mongabay, “Considering our weakness, we are working on increasing our resources so that these facilities, including the safari parks, will be able to manage such distressed wild animals.”
Besides this, “we have just got approval from the planning commission [under the Ministry of Planning] to run a project for rehabilitating all captive elephants in the country,” she said. According to IUCN Bangladesh, the country has 94 Asian elephants in captivity for various purposes, including amusement.
Hasan said they are also working on returning exotic wild animals like ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) — illegally imported and placed in safari parks or confiscated from poachers and traders — back to their origin countries.
Banner image: The rescue team carries a deer rescued from an artificial amusement park. Image courtesy of the WCCU.
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Citations:
Islam, M. Z. (2022). The role of law in conserving wildlife in Bangladesh. International Journal of Environmental Studies. 80(4):1-10. doi:10.1080/00207233.2022.2103998
Pyke, G. H., & Szabo, J. K. (2017). Conservation and the four Rs, which are rescue, rehabilitation, release, and research. Conservation Biology. doi:10.1111/cobi.12937
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