Elite appetite turns Bangladesh from source to consumer of tiger parts
9 Jan 24
DHAKA — Bangladesh’s strong
economic growth over the past two decades has lifted millions of the
country’s citizens out of poverty. It’s also led to a booming elite
class — one with an increasingly voracious, and illicit, appetite for
tiger parts.
Bangladesh is one of the range countries of the endangered Bengal tiger
(Panthera tigris), and while historically domestic poaching of the big
cats for their body parts was driven by demand from overseas, today
there’s a thriving local market fueling the illegal trade, according to
a recent study.
“Historically, Bangladesh served as a major supplier of live tigers and
body parts,” study lead author Nasir Uddin, from Xishuangbanna Tropical
Botanical Garden in Yunnan, China, told Mongabay.
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