Hotels in Tahirpur upazila of Sunamganj will serve the meat of migratory birds to anyone willing to pay more. Tourists who come from across the country and sit down for lunch or dinner are offered it as a special item, and visitors can even phone ahead to order the meat before setting out for Tanguar Haor.

On a visit, tourists returning from Tanguar Haor were seen entering a hotel for rice, where staff reeled off the dishes on offer. Bird meat was pitched as the special item at Tk 300 a plate, twice the price of beef or chicken. Hotels large and small across Tahirpur sell it to those who pay extra.

In winter, heavy snowfall in Siberia and other parts of the world makes survival impossible for birds and causes an acute food shortage. Many species fly thousands of miles to take shelter at Tanguar Haor, the largest and most biodiverse wetland in the country's north-east and one of the world's Ramsar sites. But even here they are not safe: some unscrupulous people hunt them every year, and several have made it their profession.

Locals said bird hunting might fall if mobile courts were run regularly in all the hotels. They alleged that a ring hunts birds regularly with the police and Ansar on its side, which is why birds no longer come to Tanguar Haor as they used to.

Local resident Ahmad Nur said the haor once held thousands of birds but no longer does, because hunters take birds every day, fill their bags and sell them at the market to hotels and restaurants.

Another resident, Jahangir Alam, said bird meat is available in hotels to those who pay more. "We locals have been campaigning for a long time to stop bird hunting, but the administration is not listening to us," he said.

Kashmir Reza, president of the Sunamganj Environment and Haor Development Organisation, told Jago News: "We strongly demand that the administration bring bird hunters to book and ensure they are punished."

Sunamganj Deputy Commissioner Md Jahangir Hossain told Jago News that drives against the sale of bird meat in hotels and restaurants had been carried out before, were continuing and would continue.

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