The Sundarbans are surrounded by villages because the Sundarbans is an environment rich with natural resources. Humans use the Sundarbans for meat, timber and honey. Ramu lives near a village in South Bangladesh. The people and the livestock are easy prey for a tiger so Ramu is drawn to the village. One day, two villagers entered the forest to cut down wood. Ramu stalked and killed them both. Ramu was found eating one of the villagers by a boy from the village. The whole village was in uproar over what had been done. They entered the forest armed with sharpened sticks and a few guns. They found Ramu stalking another spotted deer. They shot and stabbed him to death. Often tigers attack humans in the forests because they are easy prey, not because they are humans. Tiger attacks on humans has made it even harder for people to protect them. At the moment it is only 60-100 people per year and humans are only 3% of the tigers diet.

However, Climate Change threatens to destroy the Sundarbans and make the largest tiger population disappear. According to the study Sea Level Rise and Tigers: Predicted Impacts to Bangladesh’s Sundarbans Mangroves, an expected sea level rise of 11 inches above 2000 levels may cause the remaining tiger habitat in the Sundarbans to decline by 96 percent, pushing the total population to fewer than 20 breeding tigers. Unless immediate action is taken, the Sundarbans, its wildlife and the natural resources that sustain millions of people may disappear within 50 to 90 years, the study said. The rising sea levels would kill off most of the tigers. The rest would have to go further inland where they would have to compete intensely with humans for food and resources. If greenhouse gas emmisions are not limited soon, Rising Sea levels would decimate 400 tigers out of the 3200 tigers left in the wild.

Stop Climate Change for the Tigers.

Discussion Questions

• How can America help the Sundarbans and the Tigers?
• How can the local governments help to conserve the Mangrove forest?

Credits

• "Experts Fear Climate Change Will Lead To More Tiger Attacks In The Sundarbans" NPR.org
• http://www.npr.org/2016/05/18/478488916/rising-sea-levels-threaten-bengal-tigers-climate-change-experts-say
• "Climate Change Threatens to Wipe Out One of World's Largest Tiger Populations this Century" Worldwildlife.org
• http://www.worldwildlife.org/press-releases/climate-change-threatens-to-wipe-out-one-of-world-s-largest-tiger-populations-this-century
• "Sundarbans" Wikepedia.org
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundarbans