National Biodiversity Day is being observed today with the theme "Harmony with nature and sustainable development". The theme's main aim is to highlight the link between conserving biodiversity and the goals of sustainable development, so that everyone can work together to protect nature.

But in our country forests are being cleared indiscriminately. Trees are being cut and hills razed without pause. Housing projects are being built on farmland, and wetlands are being filled in and rivers polluted and grabbed. The country and its environment are being scarred, and as a result the loss of biodiversity has accelerated alarmingly. This worries environmentalists and people everywhere, because biodiversity makes the human environment liveable in many ways; when it breaks down, people and other living things face countless complications and threats. That is why there are now real movements to protect various animals and birds. The reality is that the call to protect something only rises when endangerment has taken hold, and many animals and birds are now endangered and rare. The way the balance of the environment is being destroyed is making the country unfit to live in, yet there appears to be no action from the authorities.

The continued killing of environment-friendly snails from wetlands and farmland across the country has been added to the activities destroying the environment. Snails, born naturally in wetlands and farmland, are harmless aquatic animals. In fish enclosures in various parts of the country they are being used as fish feed. As a result the fish of the country's wetlands, the fertility of its farmland and the environment as a whole are under threat. With fewer fish in water bodies and rivers because of environmental damage, many fishermen have given up fishing and taken to collecting snails. Killing snails like this every year is having a serious impact on the environment and farmland.

Agriculturists say snails are regarded as special friends of the environment. The flesh and shells of dead snails rot and naturally produce calcium, phosphorus and potash in the soil, which raises fertility, strengthens the roots of paddy plants and helps produce bigger harvests. Living snails are of great benefit to aman paddy. Snails filter polluted water and keep it naturally clean. Snail eggs and flesh are the main food of natural and native fish. The soft eggs of snails are the only food for the newly hatched fry of fish such as koi, shing, magur, tengra, taki and shol; without this food, the fry die. So the lack of snails is hampering the breeding of hardy native fish, and native fish are disappearing. Some insects survive by feeding on snails, and these insects eat harmful pests of paddy, benefiting crop fields directly and indirectly.

Alongside snails, nocturnal bats are also disappearing. Bats are leather-winged, mammalian, nocturnal animals, seen flying here and there around homesteads and gardens at night. Every day from dusk through the night they roam in search of food. Some call them banana bats. They are usually seen in the forests and scrub of Bangladesh's hilly areas, in betel leaf and betel nut gardens, banana groves, fruit orchards and banyan trees, and live by sucking the juice of coconut, betel nut, fruits and the like in these places.

Bats have had roosts in the banyan trees of the traditional Jaflong bazar and the Jaflong zamindar house since the distant past. With the banyan trees there destroyed over time, the bats are now in disarray and many are suffering for lack of roosts. According to bird experts, Jaflong no longer offers them the habitat it once did. On top of that there is relentless catching by hunters and a severe shortage of food. So they have begun moving to neighbouring India, and some have already set off. Many others are scattered around the forested areas of Jaintiapur and Gowainghat. They remain locally, flying and hanging, in Jaflong's banyan trees. Forest resources and wildlife attract travellers, and those who visit Jaflong see these too.

Like the bat, another of the country's animals is the flying squirrel. It cannot fly continuously like a bird, but it can glide quite well up to a hundred feet. For flight it has a bat-like membrane of skin from its front legs to its hind legs, hence the name. It is slightly larger than an ordinary squirrel, with similar fur and features; apart from the wings, the difference is a somewhat longer tail and two large, round eyes. One of these squirrels, of a species described as extinct, was caught in the Reicha area of Bandarban district sadar and moved to the Dulahazara Safari Park in Cox's Bazar. News of such rare animals being caught appears in the papers from time to time. The flying squirrel must once have been a common sight in Bandarban; now it has a place on the list of rare species. The article gives its scientific name as "Gekomis sabrinus". Despite its round shape and big eyes, it is not aggressive.

Not only hostility but mainly the lack of habitat and food is behind the loss of many species of animals, birds and wildlife. On the same day, the spot-bellied eagle owl (chitipet hutum pencha) made the headlines. The owl was released from the Meghla zoo in Bandarban into the Meghla forest, a year after it had been caught in the forest of Thanchi in Bandarban. The spot-bellied eagle owl is one of the world's rare owls; it was seen in Bangladesh's Madhupur tract and the Chittagong Hill Tracts until 1985. But many animals like the flying squirrel and this owl are now extinct or on the way to extinction.

According to one set of statistics, about 840 species of wildlife still exist on paper in Bangladesh's hostile environment: 578 kinds of birds, 119 species of mammals, 124 kinds of reptiles and 19 kinds of amphibians. Sadly, the numbers of all kinds of animals and birds are steadily falling. Experts believe 17 species of wildlife have already died out in Bangladesh, and we are forgetting even their names. About 50 kinds of animals and birds face an extreme threat to their survival. It could be said that animals are safe nowhere, on land or in water, which is a serious threat to the environment and ecology. The problem is not confined to Bangladesh; it is growing worldwide. Forests, wildlife, animals and birds are needed for human existence; if they vanish, the balance of the environment will be destroyed and our own existence will be strained.

Every day some species is wiped out, and every day some animal of river, sea, forest or settlement joins the list of rare species. When a rare animal disappears, it shows that its habitat of forest and river landscape is disappearing. The fewer trees the forests have, the more the greenery will vanish, and the wildlife with it. We ourselves are the reason wildlife and birds are threatened: we are destroying the homes of animals, birds and insects. So favourable conditions must be created for animals on land and in water. Without creating new forests, not even the smallest part of any forest should be destroyed, even when needed. We also have a duty to save those that save the environment and benefit people, and every one of us must be aware of the need to protect plants, animals and birds. As the population grows, a thousand problems will stand in the way of protecting biodiversity.

The latest addition to the list is the Asian king vulture. A group of scientists recently issued a warning: unless the use of anti-inflammatory drugs to treat inflammation in livestock is stopped, the Asian king vulture could become extinct within the next decade. A team of scientists from India and Britain recently studied the Asian king vulture and, after extensive research, published an article in the journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. It says the survey found that from 1992 to 2008 the white-backed Asian king vulture declined by 99.9 per cent, leaving only 0.1 per cent, and this remainder too could disappear in the next ten years.

According to the research team, behind the rapid disappearance of the Asian king vulture is the use of the anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac in treating livestock. In their words, even when diclofenac is given, the sick animal eventually dies, and the vultures that eat the flesh and waste of the dead animal later die too. The underlying reason is that diclofenac is actually made of toxic ingredients.

With this in mind, the Indian government banned the production of diclofenac in 2006. The loophole is that while production of diclofenac for veterinary use was banned, production of diclofenac for human medical use continued. So medical diclofenac has been found being used to treat livestock in many cases. It must be admitted that although the drug's use in livestock has been discouraged, the real aim has not been achieved.

The researchers said that alongside the white-backed vulture, both the long-billed and slender-billed species of vulture declined by 97 per cent over the same period, that is, since 1992. Andre Cunningham, a scientist at the Zoological Society of London and co-author of the article, said the two species have been declining by about 16 per cent a year on average. The researchers believe meloxicam should be used instead of diclofenac to treat inflammation in livestock because it is not toxic; then Asian king vultures would survive even after eating the flesh and waste of dead animals. The writer ends by calling for the local community's cooperation and the attention of the forest and environment departments to conserve the traditional bat habitat.

The writer is a researcher and former principal (credited as KSK).

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