Only some 100 tigers currently roam the Sundarbans forests of Bangladesh, a new survey has discovered, indicating far fewer big cats than previously thought in one of their largest global habitats.
The yearlong survey that ended in April was based on footage from hidden cameras and found the true number of tigers to be between 83 and 130, Agence France-Presse reported.
“So plus or minus we have around 106 tigers in our parts of the Sundarbans,” Tapan Kumar Dey, the Bangladesh government’s wildlife conservator, told AFP. “It’s a more accurate figure....
The World Bank has signed a $15 million grant agreement with Bangladesh to increase access to clean energy for targeted rural areas through output-based aid (OBA) subsidies.
The grant is expected to benefit 1.1 million people living in poor, remote areas of Bangladesh currently lacking electricity from the power grid, a statement from the bank said on Saturday.
The project will make clean energy affordable to low-income households without using the grid by bringing down the cost of 225,000 solar home systems and 2,500 mini-grid connections.
The grant will f...
Aggreko PLC Friday said that trading terms for gas contract extensions in Bangladesh are likely to be less favourable than its earlier expectations. The company said it now expects its 2015 interim and full year results to fall short of current market expectations, citing a further slowdown in its North American oil and gas related business and “ongoing security challenges” in Yemen.
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David ...
Bangladesh, home to the world’s second-largest mobile money company, is moving to consolidate the industry as it expands financial services to the rural poor.
The central bank has proposed channeling all mobile transactions through bank-led companies with a minimum capital of 1 billion taka ($13 million), said Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman. This would force smaller providers to merge and link up with banks.
“There are a lot of entrepreneurs who could never be reached by conventional banks,” Rahman said in an interview in...
From his shop overlooking a pier on this island near the border with Myanmar, Mohammad Hossain watched the human smuggling business swell.
Over the years, the trickle gradually grew into an unending stream. The late-night flashes of light on the water, signaling that the coast was clear to launch boats, multiplied until they looked like summer lightning. That the boats were not carrying fish was an open secret here: One day, when a trawler sank on its way out, the water was littered with floating human bodies.
The people of Shah Porir Dwip — fishermen, shopkeepers, police officers and shadowy bosses — were all drawn in, as participants or concerned observers, to a multimillion-dollar people smuggling business that sent roots deep into this impoverished corner of Bangladesh.
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Japanese investment in a new deep-water port at Matarbarhi Island on the southeast coast of Bangladesh highlights increasing geo-political rivalry fuelled by the United States and its allies as part of Washington’s “pivot to Asia.” The $US3.66 billion project cuts across a long-standing Chinese offer to build deep-water port facilities at Sonadia, only 25 kilometres from Matarbarhi.
The Japanese investment, which also includes a 1,200-megawatt power plant, was confirmed last month by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). China has said that it was not interested in bidding for the Matarbarhi port and the Sonadia port project looks increasingly unlikely.
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