DHAKA: The number of Royal Bengal tigers in the Sundarbans mangrove forest in the Bay of Bengal is decreasing at an alarming rate. Both government and NGOs say there are just 121 tigers left in the Sundarbans.
Bangladesh’s Forest Department and international agencies have launched several initiatives to help protect this endangered species. While the Bengal tiger is believed to be the most numerous of tiger species, there are only around 2,500 remaining in the wild, according to the World Wildlife Fun (WWF).
Bangladeshi zoologist Abdul Aziz recently completed research for his doctoral thesis on tigers in the Sundarbans, and his survey of 2,000 sq. km of the Sundarbans — a UNESCO World Heritage site — confirmed that 121 Bengal tigers live in the forest.
“It was a Herculean job,” Aziz told Arab News. “Fifty-six local people worked with me for six months to collect the tigers’ feces and fur from the Sundarbans. This was the first time genetic screening technology was employed to make a census of the tiger population in the mangrove forest. Earlier, researchers used camera trapping to investigate the population since every tiger bears some unique stripes on its face and tail area.” It took a further two years for laboratories in the US and Europe to analyze all the samples collected by Aziz and his team.
Jahidul Kabir of the Bangladesh Forest Department’s Wildlife and Nature Conservation Circle told Arab News: “We can say (there are) between 101 and 121 Royal Bengal tigers in Sundarbans.” The deparment’s last tiger census, in 2015, put the number at 106.
The department will implement a five-step action plan next year, he said, focusing on tiger protection, strengthening resources, engaging local residents, education outreach, and research and monitoring.
“In the next five years, we plan to spend 400 crore taka ($50 million) on the conservation of the Sundarbans and Bengal tigers,” he added.
According to Anowarul Islam, the chief executive of conservation organization Wild Team, tiger movement in the Sundarbans offered cause for optimism between 2009 and 2012, when “the situation went bad.” However, he added that, this year, the situation has stabilized.
Between 1975 and 2006, censuses show that there were between 200 to 450 Bengal tigers in the Sundarbans, so there has been a marked decrease in numbers in recent years, even while — according to the WWF — 13 tiger-populated countries including India, Russia and Bhutan have managed to increase their tiger numbers between 2011 and 2016.
There are explanations for why the Sundarbans have not seen a similar upward trend in tiger numbers, said Ishtiak Uddin Ahmed, Bangladesh’s country manager for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), while stressing that — because a tiger’s “home range” is typically 20-to-25 sq. km, and because of the “ecological situation” in the mangrove forest — the Sundarbans could only support a maximum of 300 tigers.
Destruction of their habitat, scarcity of food, and poaching are three of the main reasons why the local tiger population is diminishing, he said, adding: “Another reason is the increased frequency of natural calamities, especially heavy cyclones, which is an adverse impact of global climate change.”
Bangladesh striving to save endangered Bengal tigers
Bangladesh striving to save endangered Bengal tigers
A Bangladesh air force jet crashes into a school in Dhaka, killing at least 25 people
- Twenty deaths were reported initially
DHAKA, Bangladesh: A Bangladesh air force training aircraft crashed into a school in the nation’s capital Monday afternoon, killing the pilot and 24 other people, most of whom were students, officials said.
The crash caused a fire that left the two-story building in Dhaka smoldering. Officials said 171 people, mostly students and many with burns, were rescued and taken from the scene in helicopters, ambulances, motorized rickshaws and in the arms of firefighters and parents.
Twenty deaths were reported initially, and five died of their injuries overnight. Doctors said late Monday that the condition of about two dozen injured remained critical.
The Chinese-made F-7 BGI training aircraft experienced a “technical malfunction” moments after takeoff at 1:06 p.m., and the pilot attempted to divert the plane to a less populated area before crashing into the campus of Milestone School and College, according to a statement from the military.
Many relatives waited overnight at a specialized burn hospital for bodies of their loved ones.
Around midnight, Mohammed Abdur Rahim was looking for his cousin Afia Akter in a hospital. “We could not find my cousin. She is missing. Doctors here have asked us to go to other hospitals,” he told The Associated Press.
Students said the school’s buildings trembled violently, followed by a big explosion that sent them running for safety. A desperate scene soon unfolded at the crash site, as panicked relatives searched for loved ones. Screams filled the air at a nearby hospital.
The Milestone school is in Dhaka’s Uttara neighborhood, about an 11-kilometer drive from the A.K. Khandaker air force base. The school is in a densely populated area near a metro station and numerous shops and homes.
The pilot, Flight Lt. Mohammed Toukir Islam, made “every effort to divert the aircraft away from densely populated areas toward a more sparsely inhabited location,” the military said, adding that it would investigate the cause of the crash.
It is the deadliest plane crash in the Bangladeshi capital in recent memory. In 2008, another F-7 training jet crashed outside Dhaka, killing its pilot, who had ejected after he discovered a technical problem.
The government announced a day of mourning Tuesday, with flags to fly at half-staff across the country.
Mosammat Sagorika, who scored four goals Monday to defeat Nepal in an under 20 women’s South Asian soccer championship match, dedicated the country’s win to the crash victims.
“Many people have died, and many are injured. So, we all are sad,” the 17-year-old Sagorika told reporters.
At the crash site Monday afternoon, a father sprinted with his daughter cradled in his arms. A mother cried out, having found her younger child, but desperately searched for her older one.
Another father described his feeling of helplessness while waiting to learn the fate of his daughter.
“The plane crashed on the building where my daughter was. My wife called me, but I was praying so I could not pick up,” Jewel, who goes by one name, said at the scene. “When I came here I saw there was a huge fire. There was a dead body of a child.”
Luckily, his daughter was safe, he said, but he saw many other children suffering from burns.
Students also scrambled to see what had happened. “We fought with the crowd and the soldiers to get close to the crash site in our school,” said Estiak Elahi Khan, who is in the 11th grade. “What I saw I can’t describe that ... that’s terrible.”
Doctors at Uttara Adhunik Hospital said more than 60 students, many between the ages of 12 and 16, were transferred to a special hospital for burn victims.
By Monday evening, rescuers continued to scour the debris, searching for bodies. A crane was being used to remove debris.
Bangladesh’s interim leader, Muhammad Yunus, also pledged an investigation, and he expressed his deep sorrow over the “heartbreaking accident.” He called it “a moment of deep national grief.”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also expressed shock and sadness. “Our hearts go out to the bereaved families,” Modi said in a post on X. “India stands in solidarity with Bangladesh and is ready to extend all possible support and assistance.”
Rafiqa Taha, a student who was not present at the time of the crash, said by phone that the school, with some 2,000 students, offers classes from elementary grades through high school.
“I was terrified watching videos on TV,” the 16-year-old said. “My God! It’s my school.”
New Trump human resources czar distances himself from Elon Musk
- Kupor said he had told Trump and other people in the White House that “my job is to do the agenda that the president lays out to the best I can.”
WASHINGTON: The new chief of the agency spearheading efforts to slash the federal workforce said on Monday he had no personal ties to tech billionaire and former Trump adviser Elon Musk, pledging to faithfully execute President Donald Trump’s agenda.
“I have zero personal relationship with Elon Musk. I have talked to Elon Musk once on the phone in my life,” Scott Kupor, who was sworn in to lead the Office of Personnel Management earlier this month, told reporters.
The comments underscored lingering questions about the loyalties of Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs among Trump administration officials following a public spat between Trump and Musk that led to a deep rift between the two former allies.
Kupor said he had told Trump and other people in the White House that “my job is to do the agenda that the president lays out to the best I can.”
“But I’m not going to do it consistent with someone else’s objectives that are inconsistent with what the president wants to do,” he added.
Musk, who spent over a quarter of a billion dollars to help Trump win November’s presidential election, led the Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts to slash the budget and cut the federal workforce until his departure in late May to refocus on his tech empire, including electric vehicle maker Tesla .
While Trump hailed Musk’s tenure upon his departure, the president quickly pulled the nomination of Musk ally and tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman to lead NASA. Reuters previously reported that Musk was disappointed by Isaacman’s removal.
The president also threatened to cancel billions of dollars worth of contracts between the federal government and Musk’s companies after Musk denounced Trump’s tax-cut and spending bill as a “disgusting abomination.”
Prior to taking the helm at OPM, Kupor was a partner at Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, which invests in Musk’s AI startup Xai as well as SpaceX.
White House restricts WSJ access to Trump over Epstein story
- The punishment of the Wall Street Journal marks at least the second time the Trump administration has moved to exclude a major news outlet from the press pool over its reporting
WASHINGTON: The White House on Monday barred The Wall Street Journal from traveling with US President Donald Trump during his upcoming visit to Scotland, after the newspaper reported that he wrote a bawdy birthday message to his former friend, alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
The move comes after Trump on Friday sued the WSJ and its media magnate owner Rupert Murdoch for at least $10 billion over the allegation in the article, which Trump denies.
The Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein case has threatened to split the Republican’s far-right Make America Great Again (MAGA) base, with some of his supporters calling for a full release of the so-called “Epstein Files.”
The punishment of the Wall Street Journal marks at least the second time the Trump administration has moved to exclude a major news outlet from the press pool over its reporting, having barred Associated Press journalists from multiple key events since February.
“As the appeals court confirmed, The Wall Street Journal or any other news outlet are not guaranteed special access to cover President Trump in the Oval Office, aboard Air Force One, and in his private workspaces,” said Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“Due to The Wall Street Journal’s fake and defamatory conduct, they will not be one of the thirteen outlets on board (Air Force One).”
Trump departs this weekend for Scotland, where he owns two golf resorts and will meet with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Earlier this month, the US Department of Justice, under Trump-appointed Attorney General Pam Bondi, said there was no evidence suggesting disgraced financier Epstein had kept a “client list” or was blackmailing powerful figures before his death in 2019.
In its story on Thursday, the WSJ reported that Trump had written a suggestive birthday letter to Epstein in 2003, illustrated with a naked woman and alluding to a shared “secret.”
Epstein, a longtime friend of Trump and multiple other high-profile men, was found hanging dead in a New York prison cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges that he sexually exploited dozens of underage girls at his homes in New York and Florida.
The case sparked conspiracy theories, especially among Trump’s far-right voters, about an alleged international cabal of wealthy pedophiles.
Epstein’s death — declared a suicide — before he could face trial supercharged that narrative.
Since returning to power in January, Trump has moved to increase control over the press covering the White House.
In February, the Oval Office stripped the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) of its nearly century-old authority to oversee which outlets have access to certain restricted presidential events, with Trump saying that he was now “calling the shots” on media access.
In a statement, the WHCA president urged the White House to “restore” the Journal to the pool.
“This attempt by the White House to punish a media outlet whose coverage it does not like is deeply troubling, and it defies the First Amendment,” said WHCA President Weijia Jiang.
“Government retaliation against news outlets based on the content of their reporting should concern all who value free speech and an independent media.”
Zelensky names new ambassadors during Ukraine political shakeup
- Zelensky launched a major government reshuffle last week, promoting Yulia Svyrydenko, 39, who had served as economy minister and is well known in Washington, to head the cabinet as prime minister
MOSCOW: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appointed over a dozen new ambassadors on Monday, during a big shakeup that has seen him replace top cabinet officials and envoys to shore up relations with Washington and isolate Russia internationally.
The new envoys named on Monday include ambassadors to NATO members Belgium, Canada, Estonia and Spain, as well as major donor Japan and regional heavyweights South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.
Zelensky launched a major government reshuffle last week, promoting Yulia Svyrydenko, 39, who had served as economy minister and is well known in Washington, to head the cabinet as prime minister.
Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna is set to become Ukraine’s new envoy to the United States, as Ukraine seeks to mend ties with the Trump administration.
In remarks to the diplomatic corps released by his office, Zelensky said envoys needed to support “everything that causes Russia pain for its war.”
“While the content of our relationship with America has transformed following the change in administration, the goal remains unchanged: Ukraine must withstand Russia’s strikes,” Zelensky said.
A recap of the trial over the Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian campus protesters
- US lawyer William Kanellis said that out of about 5,000 pro-Palestinian protesters investigated by the federal government, only 18 were arrested
BOSTON: The Trump administration’s campaign of arresting and deporting college faculty and students who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations violates their First Amendment rights, lawyers for an association representing university professors argued in federal court.
The lawsuit, filed by several university associations, is one of the first against President Donald Trump and members of his administration to go to trial. US District Judge William Young heard closing arguments Monday in Boston.
He did not say or indicate when or how he would rule. But he had some sharp words when talking about Trump.
“The president is a master of speech and he certainly brilliantly uses his right to free speech,” Young told federal lawyers. But whether Trump “recognizes whether other people have any right to free speech is questionable,” he added.
Plaintiffs are asking Young to rule that the policy violates the First Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act, a law governing how federal agencies develop and issue regulations.
No ideological deportation policy
Over the course of the trial, plaintiffs argued that the crackdown has silenced scholars and targeted more than 5,000 pro-Palestinian protesters.
“The goal is to chill speech. The goal is to silence students and scholars who wish to express pro-Palestinian views,” said Alexandra Conlan, a lawyer for the plaintiffs.
She went on to say that this chilling effect caused by “intimidating and scaring students and scholars” is “exactly what the First Amendment was meant to prevent.”
But federal lawyers and a top State Department official testifying for the government insisted there was no ideological deportation policy as the plaintiffs contend.
John Armstrong, the senior bureau official in Bureau of Consular Affairs, testified that visa revocations were based on longstanding immigration law. Armstrong acknowledged he played a role in the visa revocation of several high-profile activists, including Rumeysa Ozturk and Mahmoud Khalil, and was shown memos endorsing their removal.
Armstrong also insisted that visa revocations were not based on protected speech and rejected accusations that there was a policy of targeting someone for their ideology.
“It’s silly to suggest there is a policy,” he said.
Were student protesters targeted?
US lawyer William Kanellis said that out of about 5,000 pro-Palestinian protesters investigated by the federal government, only 18 were arrested. He said not only is targeting such protesters not a policy of the US government, he said, it’s “not even a statistical anomaly.”
Out of the 5,000 names reviewed, investigators wrote reports on about 200 who had potentially violated US law, Peter Hatch of ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations Unit testified. Until this year, Hatch said, he could not recall a student protester being referred for a visa revocation.
Among the report subjects was Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate Khalil, who was released last month after 104 days in federal immigration detention. Khalil has become a symbol of Trump’s clampdown on the protests.
Another was the Tufts University student Ozturk, who was released in May from six weeks in detention after being arrested on a suburban Boston street. She said she was illegally detained following an op-ed she co-wrote last year criticizing her school’s response to the war in Gaza.
Hatch said most leads were dropped when investigators could not find ties to protests and the investigations were not inspired by a new policy but rather by existing procedures in place at least since he took the job in 2019.
Patrick Cunningham, an assistant special Agent in charge with Homeland Security investigations in Boston and who was involved in Ozturk’s arrest, said he was only told the Tuft University student was being arrested because her visa was revoked.
But he also acknowledged being provided a memo from the State Department about Ozturk as well as a copy of an op-ed she co-wrote last year criticizing her university’s response to Israel and the war in Gaza. He also admitted that he has focused more on immigration cases since Trump’s inauguration, compared to the drugs smuggling and money laundering cases he handled in the past.
Professors spoke of scaling back activism
During the trial, several green card-holding professors described scaling back activism, public criticism and international travel following Khalil’s and Ozturk’s arrests.
Nadje Al-Ali, a green card holder from Germany and professor at Brown University, said she canceled a planned research trip and a fellowship to Iraq and Lebanon, fearing that “stamps from those two countries would raise red flags” upon her return. She also declined to participate in anti-Trump protests and abandoned plans to write an article that was to be a feminist critique of Hamas.
“I felt it was too risky,” Al-Ali said.
Kanellis, a US government attorney, said “feelings” and “anxiety” about possible deportation do not equate to imminent harm from a legal standpoint, which he argued plaintiffs failed to establish in their arguments.
