Sharks are being sold in the market with guest birds caught and then sold to be eaten. While catching and killing these animals is a crime, a section of unscrupulous businessmen are carrying on the trade with impunity.
Authority says that since there is only one monitoring team, catching criminals is often not possible.
On Dec 30 last, AFP bureau chief, Shafiqul Alam, took a snap of a shark to be sold in Shahinbag in Dhaka. The seller, believing the fish to be a dolphin, wanted to sell each kg for Tk 800.
Most people who gathered around the exotic fish were talking about buying the fish to eat with only a few young people saying that selling of a shark was unlawful.
The wildlife preservation act 2012 states that a person may be fined Tk 100,000 or face 1 year in prison for killing birds that have been mentioned as species which cannot be killed.
For a repeat offence the fine is Tk 200,000 or two years in prison. For killing a cheetah, gibbons, sambar, whale or dolphin the fine is Tk 300,000 or three years imprisonment.
Environmental journalist and activist Hossain Sohel said: “The wildlife living around us are faced with threat; our common tendency is to kill something exotic or in case of birds, place them at the dinner table as a delicacy. As a result, ecological balance is being disrupted.”
A teacher recently killed a guest bird and posted it on Facebook which triggered a social media outrage.
Hossain Sohel feels that widespread awareness building is necessary to stop unlawful killing of animals.
Inspector of wildlife crime control Asim Mallik, adds: “Our drives are going on and since we have one monitoring team we are based in Dhaka and go out to different areas to work.”
“In the past, we rescued turtles from Karwan Bazar,” he added.
Professor of Zoology of Dhaka University, Dr Feroz Zaman, said: “Disrupting the ecological balance will put us in jeopardy; guest birds aid us in many ways. Their waste increases the fertility of the land. If we kill, then the ramifications will be disastrous.”
These issues need to be known and therefore, widespread awareness is essential, he added.