ABSTRACT
Geographically Bangladesh is the utmost destination of tourism for its numerous panoramic beauties. Tourist attractions include historical monuments, world longest sandy sea beach, diverse forest ecosystems, wildlife of various species, the Sundarbans, and tribal people. This is a land of eco-tourism and wildlife research. The Bengal Tiger and its unique mangrove habitat, the Sundarbans is the most tourist hub in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is also home to other well-known wildlife including Asian Elephant, Hoolock Gibbon, Asian Black Bear, Spotted Deer, Saltwater Crocodile, King Cobra, Python, and so forth. Bangladesh supports 130 species of mammals, 710 species of birds (310 species of migratory birds), 164 species of reptiles, and 56 species of amphibians. A total of 219 species including fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals are being noted as threatened according to Bangladesh National Criteria. Notable wildlife species that have already extinct from Bangladesh are the one and two horned Rhinoceros, Gaur, Banteng, Swamp Deer, Nilgai, Wolf, wild Water Buffalo, Marsh Crocodile, Common Peafowl, and Pink Headed Duck. To conserve the wildlife and its habitat, government of Bangladesh has declared 38 Protected Areas (PAs) including 17 National Parks, 20 Wildlife Sanctuaries. Besides this, government has also notified one Marine PA (Swatch of no Ground) for the conservation of aquatic mammals and fisheries; two Vulture Save Zones exclusively for threatened vulture species. These PAs are distributed into the four major forest typologies of Bangladesh, Tropical Evergreen and Semi Evergreen Forest (Hill Forest), Moist Deciduous Forest, Mangrove Forest, and Coastal Forest. The rich biodiversity is significant to the local context as well as to the international context. Two Ramsar sites Tanguar Haor and three Wildlife Sanctuaries of the Sundarbans (East, West, and South) in 1992 have been declared in Bangladesh and the entire Sundarbans (world’s largest mangrove tract) was being designated as a World Heritage Site in 1997.
