From forest to market: Following Chattogram's wildlife trafficking trail

An endangered spectacled langur caught in the remote hills of the Chattogram Hill Tracts had reached an international trafficking network. The route was set: from Chattogram to Dhaka, then through Khulna and across the border into India. Its intended destination was an exclusive private zoo.

Fortunately, the animal never crossed the border. Local volunteers and law enforcement officers rescued it from a residential hotel in Chattogram city's GEC area. Shafikur Rahman, identified as a local agent of the trafficking network, was arrested during the raid.

On 27 July, the Forest Department arrested Md Saddam, aka Jewel and Juglu, in Hathazari with 13 green parakeets. He was detained while selling 10 of them at a weekly pigeon market. Three more were recovered from his warehouse. The department says he is a key figure in the region's trafficking network and has contacts with international traffickers.

Days after TBS reported on the Chattogram Forest Department's lack of action against wildlife trafficking, authorities rescued 55 rare native animals in coordinated operations in Chakaria and Dhaka. They described it as the country's largest wildlife rescue in a single operation.

On 8 June, officers arrested Md Hadisur Rahman in Chakaria, Cox's Bazar, and recovered 13 yellow tortoises and a hoolock gibbon. Acting on information he provided, the Wildlife Crime Control Unit (WCCU) searched a warehouse in Dhaka's Mirpur area the next day and recovered another 42 animals, which included hornbills, spectacled langurs, parakeets, slow lorises and porcupines.

"The rare species among the rescued animals had been kept for trafficking abroad," WCCU inspector Asim Mallik, who took part in the operation, told TBS. "Had the operation failed, the animals would have been trafficked."

From the hills to the city, then the border

According to Forest Department figures, 3,613 wild animals were rescued in 92 operations in the Chattogram region over the past five fiscal years. Another 558 animals were rescued after entering populated areas in vulnerable conditions, including because of food shortages or loss of habitat. The department filed 92 cases involving wildlife offences during the period.

Officials say more than a third of the animals recovered in operations were found along the Chattogram–Cox's Bazar and Dhaka–Chattogram highways or in abandoned warehouses in Chattogram.

"The questioning of those arrested confirmed that the two animals were taken to India through a trafficking network after the theft. But we still do not know where they were taken within India." Sufi Ullah, Special Superintendent of Police, Media, Criminal Investigation Department

A man from Rangunia who said he had worked as a local agent for an international trafficking network spoke to TBS on condition of anonymity. He had previously been fined and sentenced to three months by a mobile court over wildlife trafficking allegations.

He said traffickers learn where animals are found in the hill forests through local contacts and pay poachers in advance. Once caught, the animals are taken at night to Chattogram city and then, in many cases, to Dhaka. Some are handed over in Chattogram to traffickers waiting near the border.

According to his account, hunters receive advances of Tk5,000 to Tk10,000 for primates. An animal may be worth Tk50,000 to Tk60,000 by the time it reaches Chattogram city, and could sell for INR300,000 to 450,000 in Kolkata. TBS could not independently verify those transaction figures.

Dipannita Bhattacharya, a wildlife and biodiversity conservation officer with the Chattogram Forest Department, said animals caught in the forests of Rangamati, Bandarban and Khagrachhari are brought to Chattogram along remote hill roads. Traffickers use alternative routes through forests to avoid checkpoints.

She said Chattogram and Dhaka are important centres in the trafficking network. Border routes through Feni and areas including Naikhongchhari in Bandarban are also used.

Dipannita also said that several tiers of organised crime are involved, from local collectors to those who arrange transport and sales. People arrested in wildlife cases often obtain bail and return to the trade, she said. Investigators are still trying to trace the links between local sellers and the wider trafficking network.

A 2022 study conducted under the University of Cambridge also found that wild animals were openly traded in at least 13 districts of Bangladesh. It identified the Chattogram Hill Tracts as a major source area and described how animals collected across the country were brought to Dhaka and Chattogram. The study linked Dhaka to trafficking by air and Chattogram to trafficking by sea. 

Forest Department and WCCU officials also identified routes through Meherpur, Hili, Shibganj and Burimari. They said animals are moved by land, water and air, with India and Myanmar serving as transit points for some shipments bound for countries including China, Vietnam and Cambodia. Department officials also cited private collections in India, Qatar and Dubai as possible destinations for trafficked animals. Nearly 297kg of tortoise bones have been seized in border areas over the past four years, according to their figures. 

Investigators believe networks buying and selling wild animals operate in parts of Chattogram, including Reazuddin Bazar, Agrabad and Dewanhat. On 2 July, the Forest Department detained Md Naim Uddin while he was selling five common hill mynas and three green parakeets in the Bahaddarhat area.

Dipannita said the department regards Naim as a local collector or agent, rather than a leading member of an international network. Investigators are trying to establish how the local trade connects to traffickers further along the route.

Operations fall as questions grow over capacity

An analysis of Forest Department figures shows that operations in the Chattogram region fell from 35 in FY2022–23 to seven in FY2025–26 — an 80% decline over three years. The number of animals recovered in those operations fell from 794 to 632. Compared with the peak of 1,030 rescued in FY2023–24, the FY2025–26 figure was about 39% lower.

Mahfuz Russell, founder of the Pitachhara Forest and Wildlife Conservation Initiative, said the decline in operations was worrying as trafficking networks had become more organised and more careful in their methods.

Rescuing animals alone would not dismantle those networks, he said. Investigators needed to identify collectors, transporters, buyers and organisers, strengthen border surveillance and pursue cases effectively. He also believes the relevant Forest Department offices in Chattogram have shown too little initiative.

Asim Mallik said there is no reliable study establishing what proportion of Bangladesh's wildlife reaches international traffickers. Based on his field experience, he estimates that 60–70% of the animals recovered in operations had been at risk of trafficking. He stressed that this is an assessment, not a research finding.

He said animals are also likely moved through remote border areas and waterways without being detected. Staff shortages, limited capacity and officers having to perform several duties at once have contributed to the fall in operations, he added.

WCCU director Mohammad Mizanur Rahman said the unit rescued 22,306 animals across Bangladesh over the past five years. The Chattogram figure amounts to about 16.2% of that total. Rescue figures, however, cannot establish how many animals are trafficked overall.

The department's figures show that 82 operations recovered 2,981 animals between the 2021–22 and 2024–25 financial years. In 2025–26, another 632 animals were recovered in operations, while 203 were rescued after entering populated areas. Over the five-year period, 48 people were named as accused and 25 were arrested. 

What the agencies say about the routes

Asked about trafficking through the Chattogram Hill Tracts border, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) director of operations Lieutenant Colonel Md Mahbub Murshed Rahman said the force conducts regular patrols, special operations and searches at vulnerable points. It has also stepped up intelligence surveillance and coordinates with the Forest Department, he said.

According to his figures, BGB has rescued 604 rare and valuable birds and wild animals in operations since June 2025.

"BGB takes a very firm position against wildlife trafficking," he said. "There is no scope for such crimes to be committed using the border."

On the sea and river routes, Bangladesh Coast Guard media officer Lieutenant Commander Sabbir Alam Sujan said the force would act on any specific information or intelligence about animals being trafficked by water from the Chattogram Hill Tracts. So far, he said, the Coast Guard has not rescued or seized wild animals on sea or river routes on the basis of specific trafficking intelligence.

Group Captain Md Nur Hossain, director of Chattogram's Shah Amanat International Airport, said no wildlife trafficking through the airport had come to their attention. Legal transport of an animal requires the appropriate permission and documents, he said.

"There is no scope to take such an animal by air without approval," he said. "If someone tried, the airport's scanning and security systems should detect it."

Group Captain SM Ragib Samad, executive director of Dhaka's Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, also said the airport had no information indicating wildlife trafficking by air. Baggage and cargo are scanned, he said, and any animal found is handed over to the relevant authorities for action.

He recalled a possible attempt to traffic three eagles in January this year, but said it did not succeed. The airport has no record of another such incident since May 2025, he added.

Claims about destinations, and the limits of the evidence

Forest Department records identify at least 65 species among the animals trafficked or targeted by traffickers. Officials also reported trade in elephant ivory, jaws and bones, as well as shark and ray fins. These animal parts have different markets from the live wildlife described in the rescue cases. 

In March 2025, three ring-tailed lemurs were stolen from the safari park in Gazipur. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) says questioning of arrested suspects established that two were trafficked to India. The third was found ill near the border and later died.

"The questioning of those arrested confirmed that the two animals were taken to India through a trafficking network after the theft," CID Special Superintendent of Police for Media Md Sufi Ullah told TBS. "But we still do not know where they were taken within India."

Siddiqur Rahman Rabbi, who has been working for the last six years on wildlife rescues in Chattogram, claims traffickers told him that some live animals moved illegally from Bangladesh to India reach the Vantara wildlife project in Gujarat. Several wildlife officials also mentioned it to TBS as a possible destination. TBS could not independently confirm the claims, and the CID has not established whether the two lemurs are there. Vantara describes itself as a centre for animal rescue, treatment and rehabilitation.

IUCN wildlife researcher Simanta Dipu cautioned against concluding that endangered animals are being trafficked abroad from Bangladesh on a large scale without sufficient data. Individual cases have been documented, he said, but Bangladesh may also serve as a transit route for animals brought from other countries and moved on to a third country. In his assessment, hunting within Bangladesh remains the biggest threat to its wildlife.

Mohammad Mizanur Rahman said the Wildlife (Conservation and Security) Act, 2026 gives Coast Guard, BGB, police and customs officers the power to seize illegal wildlife shipments. The Forest Department then takes responsibility for cases and investigations.

That change creates more scope for joint action. But with operations in Chattogram down sharply, the question remains how effectively agencies can track the route from the hill forests to the city and on towards the border.