No crocodile skins have been exported for six years from Bangladesh's first crocodile farm, at Hatibeg village in Bhaluka, Mymensingh. The NGO that now owns it has not had the Forest Department licence renewed in its name, so it cannot sell skins, meat or anything else from the animals, Desh Rupantor reports.
Reptiles Farm Limited set the farm up on 13.40 acres about two decades ago; writer and entrepreneur Mushtaq Ahmed (now deceased) and Mezbaul Haque began work in 2003 and brought 75 crocodiles from Malaysia the following year. Skins went to Japan: 430 in 2014, 400 in 2015, 200 in 2016, 226 in 2018 and 251 in 2019. In the first five years of exports 1,507 skins were sold, each for 500 to 600 US dollars.
The founders transferred their shares in 2012; there are allegations that the shares were sold to the controversial businessman PK Halder, who mortgaged the farm for a loan from International Leasing. In 2022 a six-member board formed on the High Court's order sold the land and the crocodiles at auction in 2023 for Tk 38.20 crore to the NGO Uddipan.
Uddipan officials say they struggle to pay Tk 1,000 a year in government revenue for each crocodile, staff salaries and Tk 3 to 4 lakh a month for feed; ten staff now guard the farm, down from 20. The reporter found rubbish, broken pond embankments and irregular feeding; workers declined to speak.
In May 2023 the farm reported 3,700 crocodiles of all sizes and 400 export-ready skins; three years on it gives the same figures, which raises questions, since a crocodile is ready for export at three years. Project manager Dr Abu Saim Md Arif said the skins of 400 crocodiles could earn foreign currency if the Forest Department gives permission.
Uddipan's managing director Isteak Hasan said the NGO has applied for a licence. Sanaullah Patwary, conservator of forests for the wildlife and nature conservation circle, said Uddipan was asked to apply with proper transfer papers, and that the animals are not illegal because the licence is in Reptiles Farm's name. The report is by Desh Rupantor's Bhaluka correspondent Shah Md Ali Azgar.
Source: Desh Rupantor
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