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Behavioral change due to climate change effects accelerate tiger human conflicts: A study on Sundarbans mangrove forests, Bangladesh

2015; Alexandru Ioan Cuza University; Volume: 6; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

2067-8223

Mohammad Zahirul Haque, Mohammad Reza, Sahibin Abd Rahim, Md Pauzi Abdullah, Rahmah Elfithri, Mazlin Mokhtar,

Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management

The change in climate has been observed over comparable periods of time. Mangrove ecosystem and its biodiversity are threatened due to climate change. Sundarbans mangrove ecoregion situated in Bangladesh (~62%) and India (~38%) is a bioclimatic zone. Sundarbans is one of the largest reserves for the Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris L) which is the top predator. Therefore, it helps to regulate the number and distribution of prey, which in turn impacts forest structure, composition and regeneration. As climate change affects the flora and fauna in this ecosystem, these may be impaired because of migration of the species. The tigers become stray from forests to human inhabitants and causes tiger human conflicts which often results in retaliatory killings of tiger and human and or livestock. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to identify the effects of climate change towards the salinity intrusion and biodiversity, modification of floral and faunal composition, habitat loss and behavioral change of wildlife, which ultimately identify the factors for accelerating tiger human conflicts. It reviewed related literature through various websites and the secondary data were quoted with necessary modification. The primary data obtained from the office records of Bangladesh Forest Department and a social surveying was conducted on livelihood profile of the people living surrounding the Sundarbans to identify the relations between tiger attacking and their livelihood and living style. We used ArcGIS 9.3 to visualize the tiger habitat and trigger up the causes of root of conflicts between human and tiger. The results reveal the climate change effects in the Sundarbans Mangrove forest through changing its biodiversity composition in terms of loss of wildlife habitats which is responsible for accelerating tiger human conflicts. It suggests, a social and cultural revolution for sustainable alternative livelihood of forest-dependent population i.e., Alternative Income Generation (AIG), modification of the formal legal system, institutional development and in depth research can minimize these issues towards the sustainability of Sundarbans mangrove forest.