56 animals found dead in Sundarbans in four days

The forest department officials have said that so far they have found 56 dead animals in the Sundarbans after the severe cyclone Remal that hit the forest on Sunday.

Khulna Region Forest Conservator Mihir Kumar Doe said, “In the past four days, we have found the bodies of 56 wild animals - 54 deer and two boars.”

The forest department recovered 15 dead bodies of deer and a boar from the Sundarbans in Bagerhat in the last two days, reports bdnews24.com.

The bodies of the animals washed away due to the effect of Cyclone Remal, were recovered from the Kochikhali area of the Sharankhola Range in the Sundarban East area on Wednesday and Thursday, he said.

The bodies of 56 wild animals swept away by the tidal surge have been recovered so far.

“The dead deer have been buried at the Katka sanctuary, while 17 living deer were rescued and released back to the forest.”

The Forest Department official said, “Due to Cyclone Remal, a tidal surge caused all the river channels in the Sundarbans to overflow and flood vast parts of the forest. The tidal surge was above 10 feet.”

“We believe the deer may have been washed away by the tidal surge when it reached the Sundarbans and were unable to swim back to shore. Given all that water, we feared the deaths of many wild animals of the forest near the coast.”

The cyclone had caused heavy damage to the station offices, camps, and watchtowers of the Sundarbans East and Sundarbans West divisions of the forest department, Doe said.

The wireless towers set up to facilitate communication between Forest Department officials were also damaged. Saltwater has encroached on the freshwater ponds and lakes.

“Considering the destroyed forest infrastructure, our initial assessment puts the total damage at over Tk 62.7 million.”