New Study Pinpoints Bangladesh as Unexpected, Major Player in Global Tiger Poaching and Trafficking Industry, as World Marks International Tiger Day

In country and abroad, growing class of Bangladeshi nouveau riche stokes demand for tiger parts sourced from Bangladesh, India and Myanmar

Scientists applaud country’s dismantling of “pirate poacher” network, 
call for specific interventions to compete with latest evolution of poaching via poisoning

Media Contact: Susie Weller Sheppard, sweller@panthera.org, 347-446-9904

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New York, NY — In time for International Tiger Day, new research from Panthera, the global wild cat conservation organization, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences has identified Bangladesh as a previously unrecognized and major hub in the illicit poaching and trafficking of endangered tigers. Contrary to earlier findings, a growing class of Bangladeshi elite in country and abroad has been found to drive recent demand for tiger parts and deaths, poached from Bangladesh’s Sundarbans, Northeast India and northern Myanmar.  

Now identified as both a consumer and source for the illegal tiger trade, Bangladesh is likely to play a critical role in tiger conservation over the next decade. Scientists identified twelve distinct tiger poaching and trafficking problems within Bangladesh and are calling for context-tailored strategies to reduce each one. 

Appearing in Conservation Science and Practice, the study highlighted trade destinations outside of Bangladesh previously not on the radar of international law enforcement and conservationists. Bangladesh was found to supply tiger parts to 15 countries, including to Bangladeshi expatriates living overseas. India, China and Malaysia lead the pack in demand, followed by developed G20 nations ranging from the United Kingdom and Germany to Australia and Japan.

Co-author and Lead of Panthera’s Counter-Wildlife Crime Research & Analytics, Dr. Rob Pickles, stated, “This research demonstrates Bangladesh plays a much more significant role in the illicit tiger trade than we previously realized. However, the work also provides grounds for optimism.”

Pickles continued, “Breaking down the complexity of the illegal tiger trade in Bangladesh has now given us precise targets to focus on, and identified pragmatic interventions to reduce poaching. Bangladesh’s multi-agency counter-piracy campaign, involving providing alternative livelihoods and rigorous law enforcement, offers a successful blueprint to replicate in dismantling current tiger poaching and trafficking groups.”

The tidal channels of Bangladesh’s Sundarbans were infiltrated by 30 pirate groups from the early 2000s until 2018, operating extortion rackets, taxing resource harvesters and carrying out kidnappings. At least seven pirate groups branched into tiger poaching and dominated the trade. As a result, the Sundarbans tiger population plummeted by more than 50%, from 300-500 in 2009 to an estimated 114 in 2018. 

The Bangladesh government’s 2016 counter-piracy campaign offered amnesty to pirate groups, targeted those refusing and within a few years, declared the region pirate-free. Still, 32 specialist tiger poaching syndicates and opportunistic poachers utilizing poison, including Furadan, filled the void left by pirates. 

Lead researcher and former Doctoral Fellow of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dr. Nasir Uddin, analyzed tiger seizure records and interviewed 163 poachers, smugglers and traders involved in trafficking tigers through Bangladesh by land, sea and air from 2016-2021. Trade routes were identified, including source sites, processing and distribution centers, transit ports, unregulated border crossings and consumption centers. 

Scientists identified four source sites from which tigers were poached, including the Sundarbans extending across India and Bangladesh, India’s Kaziranga-Garampani Parks, Myanmar’s Northern Forest Complex and India’s Namdapha-Royal Manas Parks. Traders were found to often own logistics companies and, in some cases, hold licenses for legal wildlife trade through which illegally sourced parts are easily concealed. The majority of Bangladesh’s illegal trade occurred across land borders with India and Myanmar. Influenced by regional political instability, and cultural and linguistic similarities between the countries, gangs trafficking tiger parts were also found to be smuggling narcotics. 

To stem the current tiger trade, scientists are encouraging the Bangladesh government to adopt a problem-oriented approach through which counter-poaching interventions can be tailored to tackle specific players, trade routes and other issues, one by one. Increasing trade detection by land, sea and sky; bribe reduction; and improved evaluation of intervention efficacy via convicted and active offender interviews are additional suggestions. Engagement with communities along Bangladesh’s border where tiger parts currently flow is key. Research of elite Bangladeshis’ consumption habits and motivations would additionally aid the country’s counter-poaching campaign. 

Study co-author and Panthera Tiger Program Director, Dr. Abishek Harihar, stated, “Southeast Asia has been identified as ground zero for tiger poaching, but this study shows that tiger poaching still remains the most significant threat to the species. While not on par with tiger trade influence out of China and Vietnam, Bangladesh is a country on which international law enforcement and scientists must stay focused, particularly given its explosive economic and infrastructure growth facilitating illegal tiger trafficking.”

The country maintains a deep-rooted cultural tradition of tiger consumption. Wealthy Bangladeshi citizens seek tiger parts for medicinal, spiritual and ornamental purposes, including tiger bones, canines, meat, milk, skulls and skins, the latter of which can sell for up to $17,450 USD each. In many cases, meat is consumed to increase physical power; canines and claws are kept as symbols of power and to ward off bad spirits; and skulls and skins are used as status symbols and gifts to employers to solicit promotions. 

A 2022 Panthera-led International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species Assessment found a potential 40% increase in tiger numbers over seven years, from 3,200 in 2015 to 4,500 in 2022. Still, scientists urge cautious optimism as advances in counting tigers may explain this increase. Loss of tigers in Bangladesh - one of ten nations home to a breeding population - would firmly reduce the genetic diversity of the global endangered tiger population. 

Active in seven tiger range states, Panthera’s Tigers Forever program aims to increase tiger numbers at key sites by at least 50% over a ten-year period. To address the most pressing threats facing tigers — poaching and habitat loss — the program is focused on training and outfitting law enforcement patrols to secure protected areas; conducting scientific monitoring of tiger and prey populations; and connecting and protecting tiger habitat. 

This study provides the most precise understanding of the tiger trade in Bangladesh to date, building on several others covering perpetrator replacement in the tiger trade, the live felid trade and market-based wildlife trade dynamics in Bangladesh.