VII International extramural scientific-practical conference, Moscow, Russian Federation Current Trends in Research Activities
Международный научный центр «Олимп» Тел.89645742946 www.olimpiks.ru
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(28 December 2015, Moscow) УДК 001, ББК 72я43 Current Trends in Research Activities [Electronic Resource]. - M.: Pero Publishing House 2015. Total Pages 1629. Get Full Volume: http://olimpiks.ru/d/797165/d/sbornikviikonferentsii.pdf ISBN 978-5-906835-66-6 © Авторы статей, 2015. © Научный центр "Олимп", 2015.
Rahman K. M. M.1 and Rakhimov I. I. 2 1
PhD student, 2Professor, Doctor of Science in Biology, Dept. of Bioecology, Hygiene and
Public Health, Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University, Kazan 420012, Russian Federation. Bangladesh Biodiversity Assessment: A Brief-review Abstract Bangladesh is a country of rich biological diversity. Bangladesh Sundarbans is the home to Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris). The different ecosystems support about 3 Gymnosperms, 1700 Pteridophytes and 5700 Angiosperms plants species. Approximately 53 species of amphibians, 158 reptiles (including 19 marine species), 690 birds (380 residents, 209 winter visitors, 11 summer visitors and 90 vagrants) and 121 species of mammals (including 5 marine species) found in Bangladesh. But this stunning biodiversity both plants and animals are declining at an alarming rate from the wilderness. Only proper conservation and management initiatives can save them from extinction. Keywords: Biodiversity, Wildlife, Bangladesh
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VII International extramural scientific-practical conference, Moscow, Russian Federation
Introduction Bangladesh a small subtropical country in South Asia with rich biological diversity. The richness of this diversity as a consequence of its location in the subtropical belt at the confluence of the two major biotic sub-regions of the Oriental Region: The Indo-Himalayas and Indo-China. The biodiversity of these two biotic sub-regions overlap in Bangladesh, making the country’s biodiversity very diverse from all directions. The species richness of Bangladesh is well recognized when compared with other areas. For example, the total number of bird species in Bangladesh is nearly the same as all of Europe [1]. The five broad types of ecosystems in Bangladesh are coastal and marine ecosystems, inland freshwater ecosystems, terrestrial forest ecosystems, hilly ecosystems and man-made homestead ecosystems [2]. Bangladesh’s inland water bodies are known to be the habitat of 266 species of indigenous fish, 13 exotic fish, 56 prawns, about 26 freshwater mollusks, and 150 birds. The marine water bodies (200 nautical miles along the coast) are also remarkable for being habitat of 442 species of fish (Figure 2). There are at least 36 species of marine shrimps. About 336 species of mollusks, covering 151genera have been identified from the Bay of Bengal. In addition, several species of crabs, and 31 species of turtles and tortoises, of which 24 live in freshwater, are found in Bangladesh [2-3].
NUMBER OF RECORDED SPECIES
6000
5700
5000 4000 3000 1700
2000 1000 3 0 Angiosperms
Gymnosperms CATEGORIES
Figure 1 Floral diversity of Bangladesh [2, 3] 29
Pteridophytes
NUMBER OF RECORDED SPECIES
VII International extramural scientific-practical conference, Moscow, Russian Federation 800
708
690
700 600 500 400
336
300 158
200 100
66
56
121
53
15
0
CATEGORIES
Figure 2 Faunal diversity of Bangladesh [1, 2] Wildlife Wildlife includes only wild forms of amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. A total of 53 species of amphibians, 158 reptiles (including 19 marine species), 690 birds (380 residents, 209 winter visitors, 11 summer visitors and 90 vagrants) and 121 species of mammals (including 5 marine species) are expected to occur in Bangladesh (Table 1) [1]. Thankfully, new species are added every year in the national checklist. Geographically, Bangladesh has never been isolated form the main land Asia and that’s why habitat types found in Bangladesh are also available in the neighboring countries [1]. Therefore, there are no endemic wildlife species occur in Bangladesh. Bangladesh has many flagship species, including the Tiger (Panthera tigris), Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus), Hoolock Gibbon (Hylobates hoolock), and Asiatic Black Bear (Ursus thibetanus) [1, 4]. Each of this flagship species plays a key role in its respective ecosystems and is necessary to ensuring the delicate ecological balance. The Tiger is the national animal of both Bangladesh and India, and it is used as a national symbol of both countries. Bangladesh national cricket team popularly known as Tiger. Few decades ago several species of wild fauna extinct from Bangladesh (Table 1) [1].
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VII International extramural scientific-practical conference, Moscow, Russian Federation
Table 1 Animal species extinct from Bangladesh at recent past [1] Wildlife class
Common name
Scientific name
Mammals
Great one-horned rhinoceros
Rhinoceros unicornis
Javan rhinoceros
Rhinoceros sondiacus
Asiatic two-horned rhinoceros
Didermocerus sumatrensis
Blue bull /nilgai
Boselaphus tragocamelus
Wild buffalo
Bubalus bubalis
Gaur
Bos gaurus
Banteng
Bos banteng
Swamp deer /barosinga
Cervus duvauceli
Marbled cat
Canis lupus
Pink headed duck
Rhodonessa caryophyllacea
Common peafowl
Pavo cristatus
Marsh crocodile
Crocodylus palustris
Birds
Reptiles
Many globally threatened bird species also found in Bangladesh, including notably the White-rumped Vulture (Gyps bengalensis), Pallas’s Fish Eagle (Haliaeetus leucoryphus), Lesser Adjutant (Leptoptilos javanicus) and Masked Finfoot (Heliopais personata). Although the country has no endemic wildlife species but the Bostami Softshell Turtle (Aspideretes nigricans) was treated as endemic until in 2007 when it was established that the species also occurs in Assam, India. Although not globally threatened, Estuarine Crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) threatened nationally and it is treated as a flagship species for the aquatic ecosystem of Sundarbans [5]. Other than the flagship or threatened species there are many interesting minor species, for instance, Htun Win’s Tree Frog (Rhacophorus htunwini), which was first reported to science in 2005, from northern Myanmar, occurs in northern Bangladesh. Another rare frog species named Sticky Frog (Kalophrynus interlineatus) occurs in the deciduous forest of central Bangladesh. Among the reptile species most interesting ones occur in Bangladesh are Rock Python (Python molurus), Spectacled Cobra (Naja naja), King Cobra (Ophiophagus hannah), water monitor (Varanus salvator) etc [1].
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VII International extramural scientific-practical conference, Moscow, Russian Federation
Wildlife Habitats Wildlife habitats of Bangladesh is basically based on the mixed-evergreen and deciduous forest types. In Bangladesh about 3 Gymnosperms, 1700 Pteridophytes and 5700 Angiosperms species are found (Figure 1) [2, 3]. But there have some other habitats like Sundarbans coastal mangrove forest which is the last habitat of the Bengal Tiger and wetland ecosystem which is the habitats of diverse life forms. So, Bangladesh stunning wildlife is supported by three different forest types. 1. Mangrove forest 2. Tropical evergreen and semi evergreen forest 3. Tropical moist deciduous forests [6, 7]. The Sundarbans The Sundarbans, UNESCO World Heritage Site is the largest mangrove forest in the world comprising approximtely 10,000 square kilometres of which major portion (60%) situated in Bangladesh and rest of it situated in India [1]. One of the largest remaining areas of mangroves in the world, the Sundarbans supports an exceptional level of biodiversity in both the terrestrial and marine environments, including significant populations of globally endangered cat species. A total of 334 species of plants are recorded in Sundarbans. The common flora of Sundarbans are Sundari (Heritiera fomes), Gewa (Excoecaria agallocha), Goran (Ceriops decandra) and Keora (Sonneratia apetala). Sundarbans is the habitat of 150 species of fish, 270 species of birds, 42 species of mammals including Royal Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris), Ganges River Dolphin (Platanista gangetica) and Irrawaddy Dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris), 35 reptiles including Estuarine Crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) and 8 amphibian species. According to 2015 Tiger census, Sundarbans have only 170 tigers but the previous census in 2011 estimated that in Sundarbans roughly have 300 tigers in that sense it’s a matter of concern from the ecological point of view [1, 8]. Tropical Forests The evergreen and semievergreen forests of northeast and southeast Bangladesh are categorized into tropical forests (more precisely, subtropical forest). 32
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The hillyy areas in the southeast, particularly the Chittagong hill tracts, and in the northeast, have huge hilly areas covered by dwarf vegetation. The total of such areas is 5 percent of country's total area, most of which are found in the Chittagong hill tracts and legally designated as "unclassed state forests" [5]. Some of the areas still have very good forest cover and some parts only occupied by bushes, grasses and bamboo. The Hill forests are abundant with numerous plant as well as animal species. Some important plants species are Garjan (Dipterocarpus spp.), Chapalish (Artocarpus chaplasha), Telsur (Hopea odorata), Tali (Palaquium polyanthrum), Kamdeb
(Callophyllum polyanthum),
Uriam
(Mangifera
sylvatica),
Jarul
(Legarstromia speciosa), Civit (Swintonia floribunda), Toon (Cedrela toona), Bandorhola (Duabanga grandiflora) etc. [9. 10]. The most famous wildlife species supported by these types of forest are Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus), rare species of Sambar Deer (Cervus unicolor), different types of primate species including Hoolock Gibbon (Hylobates hoolock), Asiatic Black Bear (Ursus thibetanus), different cat species including Clouded Leopard (Neofelis nebulosa) and Leopard (Panthera pardus), Chinese Pangolion (Manis pentadactyla) and Black Giant Squirrel (Ratufa bicolor). Tropical Moist Deciduous Forest Moist Deciduous type of forests exists in most of the lowlands and floodplains in the central and western parts of Bangladesh. This forest has an area about 1,20,000 hectares which is 0.81% of the country and 7.5% of the state forest land. This forest is intermingled with the neighboring settlements and fragmented into smaller patches. Sal tree (Shorea robusta) is the main species there with other associates like Albizzia procera, Dillenia pentagyna, Cassia fistula, Terminalia belerica,
Terminalia chebula, Bauhinia
acuminata, Lagerstroemia
speciosa, Syzygium spp. etc. Plantations of first growing species such as Acacia auriculiformis, Acacia mangium, Eucalyptus camaldulensis and medicinal plants also conducted under different development project of Forest Department in the forest. Various wildlife and birds can be found in the forest. In Bhawal Sal forest, recorded species have included 13 mammals, 48 birds, 5 amphibians and 9 reptiles 33
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and in Madhuphur National Park identified species includes 11 mammals, 38 birds, 5 amphibians and 7reptiles. Of them Capped Langur (Trachypithecus pileatus), Wild Boar (Sus scrofa), Barking Deer (Muntiacus muntjak) are the outstanding features [5]. Wetland Forest The Swamp forest inundated with freshwater, either permanently or seasonally. It is located in the north-eastern part mainly in Sylhet and Sunamganj district of Bangladesh. Hijal (Barringtonia acutangula) and Koroch (Pongamia pinnata) are the main species of the forest. This forest covers an area about 23,000 hectares which is representing 1.44% of country's forest land and 0.16% of the country. Wetlands also considered as the habitat of different types of bird species including migratory birds such as Northern Pintail (Anus acuta), Eurasian Wigeon (Anas penelope), Bar-headed Goose (Anser indicus) etc. Most of these birds are winter visitor [5]. Conclusion All of the wildlife and wildlife habitats found in Bangladesh have a significant economic value. Especially, interms of well planned turism it could play major role for the development of Bangladesh economy. Now a day's most parts of the forest of Bangladesh have now legal status of protected areas. According to Bangladesh wildlife act 1974, there are three defined types of protected areas: National Park, Wildlife Sanctuaries, and Game Reserves. But still the stunning wildlife of Bangladesh is in continuous threat from different direction and their numbers are decreasing at an alarming rate. Goverment should properly implement all of the existing laws and legislations and have to build up trained manpower for the protection of biodiversity.
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