The forest department has rescued an endangered gharial and three turtles from a tank at the "YouTube Village" park in Shimulia, Khoksa, Kushtia.

Officials rescued the animals at around 3pm on Tuesday (17 February), acting on information from a local journalist.

According to local sources, the gharial was caught in a fisherman's net in a beel in Shimulia in October last year. The fishermen then sold it for a nominal sum to Delowar Hossain, owner of the YouTube Village park in Shimulia, Khoksa. The park owner kept the gharial in poor conditions in a tank inside the park. Recently a visitor saw it there and told journalists, and on Tuesday afternoon the forest department raided the park and rescued the animals.

According to the Kushtia forest department, the gharial, a freshwater animal, has been close to endangered since the 1970s. Around four large gharials may now remain in rivers in Bangladesh.

Park owner Delowar Hossain said: "The gharial was caught in a fisherman's net in October. I bought it from the fisherman for a small sum and kept it in the park. But I did not know it was illegal to keep the animal like this."

Journalist Nayan said: "I informed the forest department on the basis of information from a visitor. The rescue was delayed because of the election, but the forest department rescued the gharial on Tuesday afternoon."

Confirming this, Md Abu Bakar Siddique, deputy ranger (acting) of the Jagati forest office in Kushtia, said: "With the help of a reliable source and journalists, a critically endangered gharial and three turtles have been rescued from the YouTube Village park. They will be released into the wild."

He said that under the Wildlife (Conservation and Security) Act 2012, catching, killing or keeping gharials and turtles is illegal.

Present at the time were Md Abu Bakar Siddique; Golam Kazi, forest official of Khoksa upazila; journalists; and park officials and staff.

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