A campaign to vaccinate 10,000 fishers against Covid-19 is underway in the remote Bay of Bengal fishing island of Dublarchar off Sundarbans. A 40-member medical team joined the campaign launched on Tuesday, health authorities said. Two booths have been set up to administer the jabs.  Lokman Hossain Mia, Senior secretary of Health Services Division visited the island on Wednesday to see the progress of the vaccination. READ: 'Vaccine based on virus-like particles to protect against at least 3 variants' Bagerhat Deputy Civil Surgeon Dr Habibur Rahman said 2500 fishermen were given the until Tuesday night. Muhammad Belayet Hossain, Divisional Forest Officer of Sundarbans East Zone, said 10,000 fishermen are now staying in Dublar Char to catch and dry fish at the peak of the season.  READ: 10 million vaccine shots to be administered on  Feb 26: Health Minister Fishers expressed satisfaction over the vaccination programme.

The Forest Department recovered a dead tiger's carcass from Rupar canal near Dublarchar at the Sundarbans in Bagerhat on Friday morning. Muhammad Belayet Hossain, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of the Sundarbans Eastern Division, said members of the Forest Department were on patrol on Friday morning when they saw the tiger carcass floating in Rupar canal of the forest. The approximate age of the male tiger was 16 to 17 years, the official said. This forest official believed that the Royal Bengal Tiger died due to aging as no wounds were noticed on the tiger's body. However, an autopsy will ascertain the cause of death, he added. Tigers' death in Sundarbans Earlier, a tiger carcass was recovered from the Dhanchebaria sandbar on the Bhola River in the eastern part of the Sundarbans in March 2021. In July 2020, two tigers had died in the eastern and western parts of the Sundarbans in just five and a half months, said the Forest Department. According to the Forest Department, 40 tigers have died in the Sundarbans in various ways from 2001 to January 28 of 2022. Of these, 24 tigers died in the eastern part of the Sundarbans while 16 in the western part. Also read: Dead tiger’s autopsy conducted in Sundarbans Sometimes tigers are killed by poachers. Besides, some tigers died after being beaten by the locals when they came out of the Sundarbans. And some tigers died in natural disasters as well as due to illness and aging. On the other hand, about 20 tiger hides have been recovered during this period. According to the latest survey of 2018, there were 114 tigers in the Bangladesh part of the Sundarbans. However, the Forest Department cannot say how many tigers there are in the Sundarbans right now. The Forest Department hopes that the number of tigers in the Sundarbans has increased due to various initiatives taken to protect the tigers. Read: Govt withdraws ban on tourist launch movement in Sundarbans