Deep in the world’s largest mangrove forest, something quietly remarkable is happening. Camera traps installed across 1,615 miles of the Sundarbans’ western zone are picking up tiger movement at spots where no images were captured in two previous censuses — a sign that Bengal tigers (Panthera tigris tigris) may be reclaiming territory they had retreated from in Bangladesh’s portion of this vast, brackish wilderness.
At a glance
- Bengal tiger habitat: Bangladesh declared 52% of the Sundarbans — roughly 2,323 square miles — as protected area in 2020 C.E., up from just 23% previously, giving tigers more undisturbed breeding space.
- Prey population growth: A three-year census found spotted deer numbers have roughly doubled from around 80,000–85,000 in the 1980s C.E. to 141,357, while wild boar counts rose from around 28,000 to 45,110.
- Camera trap survey: Of 1,330 cameras placed at 665 sites, at least 53% captured tiger movement — including in areas with no previous detections — raising expectations that an updated tiger count will exceed the 114 recorded in 2018 C.E.
The Sundarbans straddles the southwestern border of Bangladesh and the northeastern edge of India, forming a tidal labyrinth of rivers, mudflats, and dense mangrove. For the Bengal tiger, it is the only coastal mangrove habitat in the world. Yet between 2004 C.E. and 2015 C.E., the tiger population in Bangladesh’s share of the forest dropped from 440 to just 106 — a collapse that alarmed conservationists even as tiger numbers climbed in India and Nepal.
What followed was a decade of targeted effort, and the results are beginning to show.
Why prey animals are the foundation
A survey titled “Status of Tiger Prey Species in the Sundarbans of Bangladesh,” conducted jointly by Bangladesh’s forest division, German Cooperation, and the Swiss unit of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), examined six key prey species over three years. Spotted deer — which account for roughly 79% of what tigers eat in the Sundarbans — now number 141,357. Wild boar, contributing about 11% of tiger food consumption, rose to 45,110. Monkey populations also increased, though barking deer numbers declined.
“The previous studies on prey animals of the tiger were very limited,” said M.A. Aziz, professor in the Department of Zoology at Jahangirnagar University and a researcher involved in the study. “From the result of the census, we can take the necessary steps for the conservation of tiger food, as this will help to reduce human-tiger conflict. If there is no food scarcity, the population of tigers will increase too.”
That logic is straightforward ecology: a forest that can feed more prey can sustain more predators. And the Sundarbans, by these measures, is getting better at feeding both. This story is one of many wildlife conservation successes emerging from sustained, government-backed habitat protection.
Zero human-tiger conflicts in five years
Perhaps the most striking number is not a tiger count at all. According to Abu Naser Mohsin Hossain, Sundarban West Forest Division officer, there has not been a single incident of human-tiger conflict in the Sundarbans in the past five years. In the 20 years prior, 52 tigers were killed or died as a result of such conflicts.
That shift is partly structural. The forest is now organized around 49 village tiger response teams, with 340 members whose job is to safely manage any tiger that wanders into a community. The approach treats local people not as bystanders but as the first line of defense — a model that pairs ecological protection with community participation.
Mohsin also credited the expansion of protected areas. “As the protected area was increased, tigers remained undisturbed and this ensured a good environment for tiger breeding,” he said, adding that the forest is now free of the piracy that once made enforcement nearly impossible in its more remote reaches.
A census that may rewrite the count
The ongoing camera trap census — 1,330 cameras at 665 locations across the western zone — is still being analyzed. Because each tiger’s stripe pattern is unique, researchers can identify individuals from photographs, making camera trapping one of the most reliable methods for population estimates. Forest officials said the final count was to be announced on International Tiger Day, July 29, 2024 C.E.
The optimism is measurable: images are appearing in places that were silent in two previous censuses. Officials say the number of tigers may rise above the 114 recorded in the 2018 C.E. survey, though the confirmed figure will depend on the completed analysis.
Bangladesh has supported this work through a layered policy framework, including the Tiger Action Plan 2009–2017, the Bangladesh Tiger Action Plan 2018–2027, the National Tiger Recovery Program, and the Wildlife (Conservation and Security) Act of 2012 C.E. The country was also among the 13 nations that committed at the 2010 C.E. International Tiger Conservation Forum in Russia to double the global tiger population by 2022 C.E.
What still needs to go right
Aziz was direct about the remaining threat: prey animals must be protected from poachers if the gains are to hold. A recovering prey base can be reversed quickly if enforcement lapses, and the same pressures that drove tigers to historic lows — poaching, habitat encroachment, and conflict — have not disappeared. The long-term survival of tigers in the Sundarbans will also depend on how the forest weathers sea-level rise and intensifying cyclones, forces no camera trap can measure.
Still, the direction is encouraging. More prey, more protected land, fewer conflicts, and cameras catching tigers in the dark where none were seen before — for a species that once seemed to be disappearing from these muddy, tidal shores, that is a meaningful reversal.
Read more
For more on this story, see: Mongabay — Sundarbans tiger and prey numbers rise amid Bangladesh conservation efforts
For more from Good News for Humankind, see:
- Wild tiger numbers rise for the first time in over a century
- Indigenous communities take ownership of what is now Ethiopia’s largest community conservation area
- The Good News for Humankind archive on wildlife conservation
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