The tiger’s death was a perfect and timely illustration of why Dr Barlow had asked WVI for specialist veterinary training as part of the Bangladesh Tiger Action Plan 2009 – 2017.

When WVI big cat specialist John Lewis arrived in Bangladesh in January 2010 to train forest staff how to safely immobilise conflict tigers, the urgent need hit home immediately. A tiger-human conflict situation had arisen in one of the many villages along the north western edge of the Sundarbans. With no flights available, Dr Lewis and Dr Adam Barlow of the Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh set off on the eight hour journey road and boat to Chandipur – but too late. A tiger response team was already on site, the straying tiger contained in a hut and frightened villagers controlled for 12 hours. But the crowd swelled to many thousands, tensions rose and near sundown the situation deteriorated beyond control. The tiger was beaten to death by the crowd – as too often happens. Darting equipment was on hand but there were no appropriate anaesthetic drugs or staff trained to use them. Adam Barlow, John Lewis and the WTB’s chief executive Prof. Md Anwarul Islam arrived an hour and a half too late. The tiger’s death was a perfect and timely illustration of why Dr Barlow had asked WVI for specialist veterinary training as part of the Bangladesh Tiger Action Plan 2009 – 2017. Ironically, the plan launched within days of the Chandipur tiger death – an extremely important event politically, marking the Bangladeshi government interest in conservation. It recognised that dedicated teams were required to deal with situations requiring tiger capture, the core focus for the workshop that followed. Armed with an immobilisation manual translated into Bangla, the three day workshop was attended by 30 delegates and included animal capture assessment, planning and techniques, anaesthesia of carnivores, and options available for problem tigers. It also identified individuals with particular aptitude for capture and immobilisation, on whom future training efforts will be focused. WVI also provide WTB with an amount of anaesthetic drugs, and basic items of anaesthetic equipment and useful literature And within weeks his training paid off, with a conflict tiger immobilised, removed from a village and released into the mangrove swamp (see News). She too was later killed when she entered another village, leaving WTB determined to re-double efforts to save tigers and humans alike.