Re-darting of the collared tiger: the tranquilizer dart on right rear leg and the collar on the neck are visible. The Daily Star published my article about the death of two tigers during research in the Sundarbans on 22nd February 2008. In response to my article Adam Barlow of STP wrote a long article and Indian tiger expert Dr. Ullas Karanth a letter to The Daily Star. Wildlife researcher Dr. Raghu Chundawat commented in a BBC interview and the producer of the BBC film the "Ganges' Dan Rees also wrote letters to The Daily Star. I thank all for their interest and comments and I will try to discuss about the responses which are relevant to many of my comments and quotes. Somehow the expert community who are closely connected to Mr. Adam got an impression that in Bangladesh there is 'media hysteria' against radio collaring, that some people do not understand the necessity of research and are against collaring of tigers. Also there is an effort to give this discussion a political colour that some people are against any foreign involvement in Bangladesh and they are doing propaganda against foreign scientists and their work. As a response I want to say, which was also reflected in my previous article, that I am not against research and not against collaring of tigers if it really helps conservation and is done with a safe and up-to date procedure and transparency. I also want to say that, Bangladesh is a backward country in science and technology and without the assistance of foreign expertise and support our conservation cannot succeed. But those supports should come with a complete plan ensuring that nobody can use it for their personal or group interest other then the main agenda. We all should acknowledge that we are discussing here standing on the dead bodies of two tigers who were the subject of invasive research. Until there is a proper investigation to find the cause of their death, any peer leaning will not help the research or conservation. The initial questions after the death of both the tigers were very simple, if the drug had any effect or if the drug was administered properly and in right dose. The second thing was to find the reasons of apparently abnormal behaviour of the tigers from collaring to their death and the reason of re-darting the second tiger when she was already very weak due to starvation. But Mr. Adam not answering these basic questions tried to prove from many angles why radio collaring was important, why conservation was necessary and how collaring was so successful in other countries, etc. Observing the events and by communicating with many vets and experts now it can be understood that, in developed countries like USA, Russia etc. where many tigers live in the wild or in captivity, strong regulations are followed while applying drugs to animal. They only allow certified vets to execute the process and they preserve all the necessary records. Investigations are mandatory by independent authorities in case of any incident like death or severe injury. Experts there use Ketamine/Xylazine protocol to immobilize tiger as a first choice and Telazol (or Zoletil, Tiletamine/Zolazepam) is not recommended except in an emergency to save life. But a small group of scientists mostly from India is still using the drug like Telazol which is not methodically tested for Bengal tigers and even is not recommended for tigers by the manufacturer itself. A spokesman for Fort Dodge, the company which makes Telazol, said "It had not performed any safety studies on its use on tigers, and does not market or recommend Telazol for this (tiger immobilization) purpose.' (BBC News: Tiger collaring project suspended, bbc.co.uk). In the subcontinent in many cases like tiger collaring no proper procedure is being followed, not adequate record is maintained and no independent investigation follows after an incident like tiger's death or missing. That might help continuing an unsafe procedure for long. All of Mr. Adam's tigers die of old age soon after collaring, most of Mr. Raghu Chundawat's tigers go missing (Four of six collared tigers missing, Down to Earth, Vol. 13, No 22, April 05, 2005). The project's primary objective was collaring normal tigers to find their territory and behaviour to build conservation strategy management but now Mr. Adam is trying to sell the importance of the project by emphasizing the necessity of working with problem tigers. These two contradicts each other. The data collected by collaring the problem tigers will not satisfy the primary research objective. It is also very strange that he is working with problem tigers at the eastern coastal forests when 99 percent of the tiger-human conflict occurs or people die in the western Sundarbans area. Mr. Adam also commented in his article that many of the references I cited in my article do not have 'actual data' showing the adverse effects of Telazol. It is true that there is not enough actual data because there was no actual research done about the application of this drug on wild tigers. This also means that there is no actual data ensuring the safety of the drug as well. Mr. Adam argued with the help of Dr Terry J. Kreeger that both the tigers did not die by the effect of the drug just because they didn't die immediately after immobilization. Their prediction may be true for zoo and captive tigers. But anybody who has the basic knowledge about wild animal knows wild tigers are predators and has territorial conflict with other animals. The physical and psychological effects for the drug can make them weak and may make them unable to hunt efficiently. They eventually can die of hunger and weakness or may be killed by other tigers or poachers easily. The BBC footage shows such a thin and week tiger after immobilization by Telazol which can prove this argument. Dr. Kreeger also didn't find any scientific data that proves that Telazol can have neurological effects like CNS signs in tiger. The answer is the same, field researchers reported from many places of such event but nobody did systematic research that the reference data can be available. Normally it is the drug manufacturer's responsibility to do such research, but in case of Telazol, the manufacturer says: they produce this drug for domestic cats and dogs only and not for tigers (BBC News, as above). A very new and well acclaimed recent publication on anesthesia of wild animal says "Anecdotally, tigers do not appear to recover well after Telazol; therefore, its use is generally contraindicated' (Zoo Animal and Wildlife Immobilization and Anesthesia, West et al; First edition, October 2007, pp.12). Another important book writes, "There is evidence of behavioural problems associated with the use of Telazol in tigers' (Chemical Immobilization of Wild and Exotic Animals, Nielson, L, 1999 Ed. pp. 246). Mr. Adam's claim of formula changes of Telazol does not coincide with these very up-to-date references and most of Mr. Adam's references. Mr. Adam many times refers to the other collaring projects all over the world. Many times he cites about the success of the project with Siberian tigers in Russia but he never tells that those tigers were tranquillized mostly by using Ketamine/Xylazine protocol. Also he comments about my points of the danger of snare and bait for wild tigers. My reason to bring up these topics was to show that we put enough other risk on wild animals. So if this whole process of collaring does not give something very important to conservation, it puts unnecessary risk on this the already near extinct animal. Mr. Adam portrayed the success story of collaring in Nepal but last month (May'08) a Nepal national daily reported a tiger's death in the Bardiya National Park (RBNP) after 12 days of radio collaring. The tiger was found dead empty stomach and there were evidence of a fight with another tiger. The report claims with its 'reliable source' in the park that the tiger was not behaving normally after it was darted and was starving for days. The report also says, about two years ago another tigress was darted and she completely lost her senses after darting and died eating poisoned food. Several cubs of that tigress also died along with her. There no third party investigation followed but independent sources and locals claim that almost all of Nepal's collared tigers behaved abnormally after darting and there are direct or indirect connection in most of their deaths to darting and collaring (Research, not poaching, killing tigers in Bardiya, The Rising Nepal, 3rd May'08). Tiger sales! Any wildlife documentary which contains some tiger footage from the wild is a hotcake in the international media market. Filming in the forests with wild tigers is very expensive and difficult. It needs expertise on the species and long time to get good tiger footage. Only they can shoot tiger from close by baiting which needs special permission from the government and involves additional arrangement and cost. It is the easiest with collared tigers. There are direct beneficiaries of such project inside the country and abroad. Big film companies support and motivate collaring of tiger for their own benefit. The locals who provide support to the filmmakers get financially benefited. The acquired data from the collared tiger is very 'valuable' for publishing articles and books. Other agenda may become more lucrative than conservation! But for these other agendas any of the wild tiger's life should not be put on risk. There can be two explanations why Mr. Adam decided to re-dart a near dead collard tiger. The first tigress collared was found dead having the collar on which made a big media reaction. One explanation is, to avoid that media reaction they had decided to re-dart the tigress to remove the collar. The other explanation is to capture a live darting sequence for the BBC film team. The normal darting procedure is difficult for filming. First they put snares and tie live baits (usually cows) in the potential roaming areas of the tiger. When the tiger gets caught in the snare they come and dart the animal. This is a violent event to show on TV because the wild tiger fights viciously with the snare. Also in many countries it is prohibited to show contents filmed with the assistance of live bait. Avoiding all these, the 'Ganges' crew took the advantage of the project for having the darting sequence filmed. In exchange they made the story of the tigers in the film as such that the film became a good alibi showing that the tigress was not eating and behaving 'abnormal' before darting and was a threat to the people in the village. But all those shots were taken of the collared tiger carefully obscuring the collar when actually her weakness was due to starvation and abnormal behaviour post collaring. This was a win-win situation for the project and for the film team, but it was virtually killing an endangered animal in the wild. After the death of two collared tigers and suspension of the collaring permission Mr. Adam is now raising a new issue of dealing with 'problem tigers' by collaring. Dr. Ullas Karanth and Dr. Raghu Chundawat, two Indian wildlife experts support his cause. Mr. Adam claims that Dr. Karanth had no problem doing research in Nagorhole but Dr. Raghu Chundawat writes, "Tiger project in Nagarhole by Ullas Karanth has had to face tremendous problems in conducting research; more recently, several cases in courts have been slapped on him' (Tiger Task Force Report, MoEF, India, May 2005). Mr. Karanth argues in his letter to The Daily Star, "Unless mortalities actually occur during sedation, death of a collared tiger weeks or days later cannot be attributed to the research work.' He also says "The radio-collar does not bestow immortality on its wearer.' But application of inappropriate drug or improper application of a safe drug can make a wild tiger unhealthy. That can reduce its hunting capacity and can make it week and eventually the tiger may die weeks or months later. Shall we consider it a normal death? Mr. Chundawat started his radio collaring project in Panna Tiger Reserve in Madya Pradesh India around 1995. At that time Panna was considered one of the best tiger reserves in India and the whole world supported Mr. Chundawat's project. BBC made films on his work (Tigers of the Emerald Forest) and many books and articles were published based on the experience of his field research. For nine years he made Panna his home and collared at least eleven tigers. But soon after he suddenly declares four of the six tigers, on which his team had put radio collars, were missing. He said "at least 13 tigers with radio devices attached to collars in the park and being monitored by his team had gone missing recently' (News, BBC.co.uk, 5th May, 2005). He claimed that all of them were killed by poachers. The authority, which gave permission of doing invasive research with Panna tigers became very upset and cancelled his research permission. Mr. Chundawat says about his own "Tiger research project in Panna : After the death of radio-collared tigers due to poaching, death of prey species in snares and complaints made to chief wildlife warden regarding the lax protection measures and destructive management practices, the forest department started harassing the researcher and curtailing research activities in this case