The government will establish a hotline communications line to receive all kinds of information on wildlife trafficking in the country starting from Monday. The number for the hotline is 01755660033. Environment and Forest Minister Hasan Mahmud will officially inaugurate the hotline Monday on the occasion of Global Tiger Day. Global Tiger Day was announced in 2010 at the St Petersburg Tiger Summit when tiger range countries declared their aim to double the number of wild tigers by 2022. Anybody can instantly provide information on wildlife trafficking to the forest officials by calling the number, said Abu Naser Mohsin Hossain, assistant conservator of Forest, Wildlife Crime Control Unit of the Strengthening Regional Co-operation for Wildlife Protection Project. “Getting information from mass people of different locations will help us to monitor and execute the crime control move easily,” he added. Once a call is received the caller will be asked which divisional wildlife official needs to be connected. After getting a response from the caller, the phone will automatically go to the official concerned, who will then respond to the questions. At present, seven divisions of wildlife management are in place in Bangladesh. They are Khulna, Chittagong, Dhaka, Sylhet, Habiganj, Sherpur and Rajshahi. Initially, the hotline will only receive information on illegal poaching and trafficking of wildlife so that they can take rapid action to control such crimes. Gradually, the hotline service will increase its coverage by providing solutions to people’s queries on wildlife and forests, Abu Naser said. The number of Bengal tigers in the Bangladeshi Sundarbans is 440 as per the official statistics. However, the experts said the number is decreasing day by day due to illegal poaching and trafficking. The hotline service comes as a project component of the Strengthening Regional Co-operation for Wildlife Protection Project, which aims to respond quickly to stop wildlife trafficking. The $36m project funded by the World Bank Bangladesh started on July 1, 2011 and was expected to end on June 30, 2016.