@Hunter-Habib,
Question: With the new regime, and IF with you as the new IGF: Would there be any possibility of hunting opportunities being restored?
@Ridge Runner
Hunting deer, water buffalo, wild boars, rabbits, waterfowl & upland birds are legally permitted in Bangladesh (subject to the discretion of the local forest departments with a fee being placed). Waterfowl hunting is almost universally practiced in the rural areas. Big game hunting is less common but not frowned upon. India tried for many years, to get hunting banned here. Fortunately, they didn’t succeed while the old regime was in power. So them being able to do anything with the new government (who openly stated that they don’t want Indians meddling in our domestic affairs) is extremely unlikely.
But all this is predominantly meat hunting. The concept of trophy hunting being used as a means of earning revenue from foreigners is still not understood by the Bengali people. But you never know… perhaps, someday we can educate them better. If you read Chapter VIII of my autobiography, then you can understand more about this subject.
We are a little hesitant to establish any commercial hunting opportunities for foreigners here. In 1967, a British man named Guy Mountford (founder of the WWF) came here (then known as East Pakistan) and wrote many negative things about how locals hunt here (hunting deer over torchlight, hunting deer with buckshot, shooting geese on the water, etc). When guests come to our country, the last thing we want is for them to speak ill about our hunting practices. If they apply their brand of sporting ethics here, then there will be clashes with the local hunters. When I was CCF (Chief Conservator Of Forests) of Bangladesh from 1993-2000, I had brought this topic up at the Ministry of Forests as to whether or not any commercial opportunities should be permitted for foreigners to hunt here. The verdict was “No” in a 5:4 ratio. A foreigner can come & write one bad article about hunting here, and all eyes from across the globe will be on Bangladesh and how to get hunting banned here (as is the case in Africa now). And the local people can’t afford that. They want to be able to enjoy their little paradise undisturbed by foreign scrutiny.
I do informally take countless of my foreign friends hunting when they come to visit me, though.
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