Bangladesh adopts new technology to fight wildlife crimes

The Bangladeshi government’s forest department recently added surveillance drones to their arsenal of conservation tools. Wildlife inspectors started using this technology to prepare a dragnet around a poaching hotspot with an aerial view.

In mid-November, Abdullah As Sadeque, a wildlife inspector of the forest department’s Wildlife Crime Control Unit (WCCU) who is assigned to catch bird poachers, used a drone camera to a bird sanctuary in Gopalganj district in southern Bangladesh to sharpen his drone-operating skills.

One afternoon, he flew the drone over a beel — an expansive swamp comprising many shallow depressions — at the Kotalipara sub-district of Gopalganj and noticed many of bird traps in remote waterbodies.

Thin nylon threads making hundreds of looped knots were strung up in rows across several parts of the beel. Meanwhile, solar-powered loudspeakers played artificial bird calls to deceive migratory birds flying overhead. The arrangement was to trick them into landing in the waterbody. When the birds approach the nooses, it’s the end for them. Sadeque said he saw their necks get caught in the loops, where they became trapped.

Sadeque recalled the day. The bed of the waterbody was uneven and the only mode of transportation could be a small-capacity country boat. “If we had tried to patrol the vast waterbody, it would have taken an entire day. We completed the task using a drone and traced the traps in about 15 minutes,” Sadeque told Mongabay.

During the operation, illegal bird traps were seized, several birds were rescued, and two poachers were jailed.

Recently, the WCCU received a set of equipment from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes to combat wildlife poaching and trafficking.

Besides the drone, the equipment included wireless walkie-talkie sets, GPS trackers, high resolution DSLR cameras, GPS-enabled action cameras, ID microchip implants for animals, ID chip readers, borescope cameras, night-vision binoculars, forensic tools and tranquilizing gear.

Countries surrounding Bangladesh have been using technology to combat wildlife crime for more than a decade now. Nepal added unmanned aerial vehicles, remote-controlled drones equipped with cameras and GPS in 2012. The next year, India followed suit.

Wildlife deaths in Bangladesh

In November, the forest department discovered a dead elephant in Madhutila Eco Park in Sherpur district. Locals believe the elephant, separated from its herd, was electrocuted after descending from the hills towards the villages in search of food.

In February, forest department officials found a dead leopard in the Nagar River in Panchagarh district. Locals said the stray leopard died of poisoning after eating a cow carcass treated with poison by a farmer, who thought jackals had attacked his cow.

Wildlife inspectors believe they could have prevented both deaths if they had modern technology earlier.

“If we had the drone earlier, we could have monitored the stray animals and taken necessary steps to rescue them,” Sadeque said.

Technology: a crucial instrument to protect wildlife

Many wildlife-rich countries grappling with poaching threats regularly use technologies such as drones, acoustic traps, satellite tracking, radio frequency identification, radio collars and camera traps.

Furthermore, AI-based tools like the Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART) and Hostile Activity Watch Kernel (HAWK) have been effectively deployed.

Wildlife conservationists and lawyers agree that technology plays a vital role in monitoring regulation procedures, tracking wildlife movement, analyzing crime data and criminal activity, and patrol zones.

Jennifer Noll, a U.S.-based law enforcement and investigation expert, said, “It is essential for investigative purposes to allow officers to enhance their visual and auditory input. This can be accomplished through the use of night vision, scopes and listening devices.”

In May 2024, Noll trained Bangladeshi wildlife inspectors to look for and capture suspects, patrol, investigate, and combat wildlife crimes using technology.

She said that the use of technology allows wildlife custodians to collect critical information to pinpoint hotspots, guide patrols, observe migration patterns that may be prime areas for poaching, and map the trafficking routes. The data accumulated by technology proves worthy of detection and wildlife crime investigation efforts.

During the COVID-19 lockdowns, illegal wildlife market operations moved online in many parts of the world, while protected areas reduced law enforcement. This increased workload for teams combating wildlife crime.

In this context, the use of technology such as camera traps and perimeter intrusion detection systems helped to deploy limited resources to address incursions and poaching activities more effectively, a policy brief says.

Bangladesh’s wildlife crime control so far

Since establishing the WCCU in 2012, Bangladesh’s wildlife crime controllers have rescued around 35,000 birds, more than 10,000 reptiles and around 13,000 mammals and seized around 14,500 wildlife parts.

During this period, the unit also detected more than 26,000 offenses and arrested 219 criminals for alleged poaching and trafficking wildlife.

Most of these offenses were detected due to tip-offs from volunteers, including local conservation groups and law enforcement intelligence.

Sadeque said that the WCCU is connected with around 150 biodiversity conservation groups comprising more than 10,000 volunteers. The volunteers convey information to the unit via phone calls and social media, including Facebook and WhatsApp.

Whenever the volunteers spot poaching, trafficking or a wild animal in distress, they inform the WCCU. Then they are connected over phone calls with the local authorities for further action.

WCCU director Sanaullah Patwary said that telecommunication often eases the work of the understaffed WCCU. The crime control unit of the forest department also lacks vehicles to reach the hotspots quickly.

“Even a layman plays a crucial role, using a smartphone. Shared photographs of a distressed wildlife species, geolocation and information about criminal activities and criminals often help the vital investigation,” Patwary said.

Since 2020, the WCCU has been added as one of the responders to the phone calls of the National Emergency Service number 999. The unit has four hotlines too.

Several YouTubers and video promoters have also joined hands with wildlife inspectors in awareness-building against wildlife crimes.

The WCCU recently added i2 software to its arsenal. This software provides communicative and meaningful infographics, incorporating input data on all the latest information related to wildlife crimes, patterns, criminal groups, and their extensive networks and hotspots.

“When conducting investigations, having access to this information can be the key to catching and successfully prosecuting a poacher,” Koll said about the importance of data and technology.

This article by Sadiqur Rahman was first published by Mongabay.com on 31 December 2024. Lead Image: A chestnut-tailed starling in Bangladesh. Image by Tareq Uddin Ahmed via Fickr (CC BY 2.0).

What you can do

Wildlife continues to face threats from overexploitation in the form of poaching and illegal trade in animal products, as well as a rapidly changing climate.

Due to existing conditions, 70% of all animal and plant species are at risk of extinction by 2050.

Help to save wildlife by donating as little as $1 – It only takes a minute.