Three crocodiles have been released in the Harbaria area of the Sundarbans to mark the birth centenary of Bangabandhu. The forest department says a total of 90 crocodiles will be released into various rivers and canals of the Sundarbans.

Ziaul Hasan, secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, and deputy conservator of forests Kabir Hossain Patwari released the three crocodiles at Harbaria on Sunday afternoon.

Present were Sundarbans East divisional forest officer Muhammad Belayet Hossain, Sundarbans West divisional forest officer Abu Naser Mohammad Mohsin Hossain, and Md Azad Kabir, officer-in-charge of the Karamjal wildlife breeding centre.

Md Azad Kabir, officer-in-charge of the Karamjal tourism and wildlife breeding centre, said the forest department has taken the initiative to release 90 crocodiles into various rivers and canals of the Sundarbans for Bangabandhu's birth centenary. As part of this, three were released in the first phase on Sunday.

He said the release programme had been somewhat disrupted and delayed by the coronavirus, but the remaining crocodiles will be released in phases at different places inside the forest.

The forest department set up the crocodile breeding centre at Karamjal in 2002 to breed and increase the numbers of this nearly extinct saltwater crocodile species.

After Sunday's release of three, the breeding centre now has 192 crocodiles, large and small. The other 87 are awaiting release. Once they are freed, 105 crocodiles will remain at the centre.

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