Four tiger poachers are killed in a Bangladesh mangrove after shootout with police

Four tiger poachers have been killed in a mangrove forest in Bangladesh after a shootout with police. 

The armed men opened fire on officers from the Rapid Action Battalion, the anti-terrorism unit of the Bangladesh Police, after being questioned on Wednesday, officials said.

A shootout ensued between police and the poachers, who were crossing a river in the Sundarbans, the world’s biggest mangrove forest.

Four bodies, guns and ammunition were found on their boat, RAB spokesman Tajul Islam said. 

The men were identified as members of a gang that poaches Bengal tigers and Irrawaddy dolphins. 

‘These gangs have become a major threat to wildlife conservation in the mangroves,’ Islam said. 

At least 120 people have been killed in clashes with the RAB since 2004, while another 400 have been arrested on the rivers and canals that cross the mangrove.

The men were identified as members of a gang that poaches Bengal tigers and Irrawaddy dolphins (file image)

Some 200 surrendered their weapons to police in exchange for cash, legal aid and mobile phones. That led Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to last year declare the campaign against the outlaws as a success.

Last week, authorities said the tiger population in the Sundarbans, which also includes parts of India, has grown for the first time in two decades.

A tiger census released by the forestry department showed the number of the big cats on the Bangladeshi side of the border to have increased to 114 from 106 four years ago.

Numbers had fallen from 440 in 2004 to 106 tigers in a 2015 census.