A mobile court has sentenced a bus driver, Md Jasim Uddin, 40, to two months in jail over an endangered black langur, or black monkey, recovered in Chandanaish upazila of Chattogram.

Chandanaish Assistant Commissioner (Land) and Executive Magistrate Jimran Mohammad Sayek conducted the mobile court on the afternoon of Thursday, 3 August.

The convicted man is the son of the late Samshul Alam of Ponchpara, Ward 8 of Chakaria municipality in Cox's Bazar. Police said he drives a bus for S Alam Paribahan.

Md Anwar Hossain, officer-in-charge (OC) of Chandanaish police station, said the endangered black langur was being taken from Chakaria to Dhaka along the Chattogram–Cox's Bazar highway, and there was a plan to smuggle it abroad. Acting on a tip-off, police searched an S Alam Paribahan bus in the Gachhbaria College Gate area and recovered the langur. The driver, Jasim, who was involved in the smuggling, was detained on the spot.

The assistant commissioner (land) of Chandanaish then held the mobile court and sentenced him to two months in jail.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) works on the identity and current status of animals around the world, and its list gives a clear picture of each species' status and risk of extinction. The IUCN list shows the spectacled langur, or black monkey, as endangered.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.