Chinese Panda, Bengal Tiger and Rampal

For many reasons, Bangladeshi people like the Bengal tiger. It is perhaps because they think it is theirs to be proud of! The Bengal tigers are majestic, fierce, powerful, and live in an extraordinary place called the Sundarbans – a Unesco world heritage site and the largest mangrove forest in the world. There is so much emotion for the Bengal tigers in Bangladesh that the children read about it in books, the Bangladeshi cricket team uses them as their symbol, the Bangladesh Army uses Bengal tigers as their mascot, and the country considers it as the national animal of Bangladesh, and people carry tiger effigies during Bangla New Year festivals each year.

The same is true of the love and passion of Chinese people for their giant pandas. Pandas are cute and lazy, and they eat only bamboo. Chinese people regard them as a symbol of peace or friendship. Pandas are often compared to the yin and yang because of their black-and-white spots. China considers them to be the ‘national treasure’. China owns almost all the world’s giant pandas and all future offspring of all pandas. From commemorative coins to international diplomacy, the panda is gold for China.

Although the Bengal tiger and panda live in two very populous countries, their numbers are minimal. Their existence is severely threatened by human population growth, lost biodiversity, habitat destruction, climate change, etc. Both animals are red-listed species. However, recently, the panda has changed its status from “endangered” to “vulnerable” because of a population rebound in China after an enormous effort by the Chinese government for over four decades (China still wants to do more). But Bengal tigers are not even close to any luck. There are only over 100 tigers left in the Sundarbans of Bangladesh. They are still considered an endangered species. On the top, the Bangladesh government is tirelessly trying to build a coal-based energy power plant in Rampal, close to their habitat, against the will of the people and defying many environmental concerns.

Why?

China needs panda plus energy. Bangladesh needs energy, even at the cost of all the Bengal tigers. Losing pandas is a national shame for China, but building a power plant, even by losing tigers and their habitat, is a sign of progress and development for Bangladesh. Bangladesh needs more energy for people than the people need for Bengal tigers. China has earned millions of dollars just by panda-related activities. That is not the case for Bangladesh. The area where tigers live is underdeveloped, and they are not helping Bangladesh’s economy at all! The Prime Minister of Bangladesh described the largest mangrove, the Sundarbans, as an underdeveloped area. In a recent press conference, the PM told the media that…

‘The (Rampal) power plant will create employment there. People want electricity. Do the people of that area want to live in the darkness? No, they don’t want. And it is a completely neglected area…the people there (in Sundarbans), what are their livelihoods? They steal the trees of Sundarbans or are killed by a tiger attack while cutting trees! But after building the power plant, because of work activities there, people will not steal trees from Sundarbans anymore; they will find their ways of life and work which will save trees!’

Is this true?

No. Senseless development pressure has brought opposite effects of what the PM said. In the Amazon rainforest, Brazil’s understaffed environmental protection agency has to fight the grilleros (land grabbers) illegally clearing forests daily. Examples from the Serengeti highway in Tanzania to Ladia Galaska – a 400-kilometer road network through the Leuser Ecosystem in Indonesia- show us that sustainable development is not an easy one-way path. It is not the development; it is what comes with the development in poor countries that is devastating – crime, corruption, greed, bribery, kickback, pollution, sabotage, mismanagement – harming the surrounding environment. Indeed, Sundarbans mangrove-forest livelihoods are under threat from government corruption, not because local people are using the forest for a living.

Bangladesh Government’s argument for the Rampal power plant is very simple and something like this: we will use the best high-grade coal, make a sky-high chimney, use super-duper-ultra-critical technology, apply-deploy-maneuver-manipulate all kinds of pollution-resistant techniques, work with real-time gas monitoring machines…even Rampal’s leftover carbon will be used to clean the faces of the Bangladeshi people, Therefore so-called environmental concerns are indeed environmental propaganda! Can Bangladesh really manage any unexpected catastrophic risk in the Sundarbans area anytime? 2014 Sundarbans oil spill tells us a different story! Bangladesh’s environment performance tells us a different story!

At the same press conference, the PM of Bangladesh, the champion of the earth in 2015, mentioned that during her government, in 1997, Unesco declared Bangladesh’s side of Sundarbans a world heritage site. During the declaration, there were over 400 Bengal tigers in the Sundarbans. But in 2015, Bangladesh found only 100 Bengal tigers there. Oops! By now, Bengal tigers should be like Chinese panda. Instead of growing, how come they became even more endangered?

Chinese panda tells Bangladesh a story. Energy is essential for a nation’s development. But not by risking the energy a nation derives from its pride.

Does China care more about pandas than their dragons – the highest-ranking mythical creature in the Chinese animal hierarchy? Not really. But the moment China realized that the world associates pandas with China more than their dragons, they sprang into action. Pandas are in real danger, not dragons. Pandas are cute, cuddly, and comely. Panda gives China an image that a nation can die for. The passion, pride, and pleasure of saving the pandas gave the Chinese people the magical energy they needed to build the Chinese nation.

To survive the last few years of their lives before they become extinct from the soul and soil of Bangladesh, the Bengal tigers of Bangladesh have to fight the dangerous Rampal power plant, with dreadful government policies, and with part of the population who has no clue about the Sundarbans! Indeed, there is no fight. Yes, Bangladesh needs its Rampal, not the Bengal Tigers or Sundarbans. A poor nation cannot afford pride in its soul – the feeling belongs to mighty nations. Yes, China must keep saving the pandas.