Two globally vulnerable Binturongs rescued in Moulvibazar
Divisional Forest Officer Razaul Karim Chowdhury said the animals were taken to Lauachhara rescue centre and they will be released in the forest later
Two rare Binturongs, one vulture and monkey were rescued in a joint drive by the Forest Department and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) from Jalalia road at Sreemangal of Moulvibazar.
Stand For Our Endangered Wildlife (SEW), a voluntary organisation, informed the Forest Department on Wednesday that an organisation called Bird Club and Breeding Center caged some animals, including the rare and endangered Binturongs.
Later, the Forest Department along with RAB conducted a raid and rescued the animals in the afternoon.
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Divisional Forest Officer Razaul Karim Chowdhury said the animals were taken to Lauachhara rescue centre and they will be released in the forest later.
"We will investigate into the matter why the animals were kept caged and take legal action accordingly," said the forest official.
Professor Kamrul Islam, a teacher of Jahangirnagar University's Zoology department, said the rare and endangered Binturongs are found in deep forests of Sylhet, Chattagram and Chattagram Hill Tracts.
"People called them bears but they are actually not bears," said the professor.
Binturong (scientific name: Arctictis binturong) is the largest species of the Viverridae, only rivalled by the African civet. They are found in the dense tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia across India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia to Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Yunnan in China, and from Sumatra, Kalimantan and Java in Indonesia to Palawan in the Philippines.
