With an aim to create mass awareness among people of saving Bengal Tigers, a national tiger awareness campaign is going to be launched next week.
In the campaign, a high-tech TigerCaravan will be a major tool which will visit 100 strategic locations across the country and there will be a mobile exhibition, street theatre performance with celebrity engagement and social media activities to educate the masses about the conservation of tigers and the Sundarbans.
Environment and Forests Minister Anwar Hossain Manju will launch the two-year programme on February 11.
The information was revealed at a press conference held at the Daily Star Centre in the capital yesterday.
The conference was jointly organised by USAID and Wildteam.
Yunus Ali, chief conservator of forests, told the press conference the campaign would make the commoners more aware of why tiger conservation is important.
The awareness programme is part of USAID’s Bagh project, a four-year programme which aims to strengthen local and international efforts to protect the Sundarbans, the habitat of Bengal Tigers.
The programme is being implemented by Wildteam with support of Smithsonian Institution and Bangladesh Centre for Advanced studies.
According to the latest tiger survey carried out in 2014, only 106 tigers roam the part of the Sundarbans which is in the territory of Bangladesh. The 2004 survey put the number at around 440.
Professionals and experts said the number of tigers in the Sundarbans has been decreasing because of poaching, depletion of forest and excessive human intervention in forest.
