A cycle journey titled 'Ride of the Tiger' will begin today from the capital to Kolkata with a view to raising public awareness about the endangered tiger community in Sundarban.
Five cyclists will start their journey from Italian embassy in Dhaka to ITC Sonar Hotel in Kolkata, capital of India's West Bengal state, at 6:45am today.
The riders will donate the funds earned from the campaign to Sundarban Tiger Project, a tiger conservation initiative implemented by Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh, a non-governmental organisation, and the Zoological Society of London.
The 'Ride of the Tiger' campaign has included several fundraising events including dinner party and football tournament, and also received an invitation to meet Princess Anne of the United Kingdom in February.
Each campaign element has aimed to tell people about the dire predicament of tigers in Sundarban, which is home to 300 to 500 of the remaining 3,200 tigers worldwide.
As only organisation in the country that works to protect tigers, the STP conducts research and surveillance, capacity building of the Bangladesh Forest Department, operations to mitigate human-tiger conflict, and efforts to increase public awareness of the need to adopt conservationist views of the tiger and its habitat.
'One hundred years ago, the world had a hundred thousand tigers. That number has dwindled to only around three thousand today. And without collective human support, the tiger will almost certainly disappear in Bangladesh. We are not talking about huge numbers. We are talking about a few hundred. But we do still have time.'
The five riders are Massimo Franco, Chris Roy, Henry Churchill, Keith Mullan and Max Baldwin.
Read the original story on the daily New Age
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