Forest Department officials have rescued an endangered gibbon in Lohagara, Chattogram. A mobile court sentenced two members of a wildlife trafficking ring to one year in jail over the incident and fined each of them Tk 10,000.

The order was given at noon on Saturday 8 October by Sharif Ullah, Lohagara upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) and executive magistrate. The mobile court was held at the office of the Chunati range forest officer in the upazila.

Those sentenced are Md Mazharul, 32, son of Abdul Majid of Pennai village in Daudkandi, Cumilla, and Momin, son of Abdul Jalil of Fateyabad village in Debidwar.

Present at the mobile court were Lohagara police station officer in charge (OC) Muhammad Atikur Rahman, SI Md Sajib Hossain, Chunati range officer Md Mahmud Hossain and Chunati union parishad chairman Zainal Abedin.

Forest officials said members of a wildlife smuggling ring were carrying a caged gibbon on a Chattogram-bound bus on the Cox's Bazar-Chattogram highway. Acting on a tip-off, they conducted a drive in front of the Chunati range forest office in Lohagara upazila at 9am on Saturday and caught two members of the ring red-handed on the bus.

After their arrest they admitted they were carrying the rare gibbon to sell it. Under section 34(b) of the Wildlife (Conservation and Security) Act, 2012, buying, selling, importing or exporting wildlife in this way is a punishable offence.

The two later confessed before the mobile court as well. The magistrate then sentenced each of them under the law to one year's simple imprisonment and a fine of Tk 10,000, with a further month of simple imprisonment if the fine is not paid.

The convicts were handed over to Lohagara police station to be sent to jail. The rescued gibbon was placed in the custody of range officer Md Mahmud Hossain to be sent to Dulahazara Safari Park.

Forest Department sources said the rescued animal is a gibbon. It lives mainly in the top branches of trees, moving around to feed, and lives on fruit and insects. The gibbon is red-listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Chunati range officer Mahmud Hossain said the animal is an endangered species found in only a handful of Bangladesh's forests. It will be taken to Dulahazara Safari Park and, after examination, released in the forest where the species lives.

Lohagara UNO Sharif Ullah said: "The gibbon is an endangered species. Catching it, keeping it in a cage or selling it is an offence. The two people arrested with the gibbon have each been sentenced to one year in jail under the Wildlife (Conservation and Security) Act, and they have also been fined."

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