Lawachhara Forest: Wildlife in danger

Incidents of wild animals getting killed by vehicles on the Sreemangal-Kamalganj road through the Lawachhara forest in Moulvibazar are on the rise.

On Friday night, a speeding bus hit a barking deer when it was crossing the road. The deer was undergoing treatment at a centre of the Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation Department inside the forest, said forest officials.

Animals like fox, fishing cat, wildcat, monkey, deer and rare species of snakes are often run over and killed.

A 15km stretch of the Sreemangal-Kamalganj road passes through the forest and hundreds of vehicles like trucks, lorries, buses and CNG-run auto-rickshaws use the road every day. Many animals come out of the jungle at night in search of food and are hit by vehicles at speed, said wildlife experts.

Whenever animals are seen crossing the road, drivers must slow down and let them cross the road, they suggested.

Tabibur Rahman, assistant conservator of forests in Moulvibazar, said many animals were run over while trying to go to the other side at night.

“The deer got injured in the similar way. Now it is under treatment,” he added.

Sadly, the wildlife management centre has no data or information on the number of animals getting killed this way.

Abdul Karim Kim, general secretary of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (Bapa), Sylhet chapter, said the ecosystem of the forest would suffer badly if the trend continued.

Vehicles should not exceed the speed limit of 20 to 30km per hour while driving along the road, he opined.

Mihir Kumar Doe, divisional forest officer (wildlife), stressed the need for finding a more effective solution to prevent such unwanted deaths of wild animals.

Monzur Kader Chowdhury, president of Pradhikar, a Sylhet Agricultural University-based animal rights organisation, said more cautionary signs, requesting drivers to go slow, needed to be put up along the road.

He also suggested installing “animal crossing signs” at various places along the road.

RFM Monirul Islam, divisional forest officer of the Sylhet Forest Division, admitted that such incidents do happen at night on the road.

He said they were planning to divert the road around the forest to save the forest and its wildlife.