5 Sylhet city councillors eat exotic, wild birds

Six people, including five councillors of Sylhet City Corporation, were seen in a Facebook Live video having the meat of wild birds at a diner in Jaintiapur upazila's Haripur Bazar area on Friday night.

A waiter and several councillors were heard saying that it was the cooked meat of white-breasted waterhen, locally known as Dahuk.

Although poaching, selling, and consuming meat of wild birds are prohibited and punishable offences under the Wildlife (Conservation and Security) Act 2012, sale of meat of wild and migratory birds continues unabated at several restaurants in the area, said local environmentalists.

However, all five councillors denied having wild birds at Puran Driver Hotel on Sylhet-Tamabil highway.

The councillors are: Mohammad Taufiq Baksh of ward-26, also a panel mayor of Sylhet City Corporation, Rokibul Islam Jholok of ward-11, Eliasur Rahman of ward-8, Abdul Muhit Javed of ward-16, and Tareq Uddin Taz of ward-10.

The other person who had dinner with them is Parvez Mahmud Opu, a businessman from  Sylhet. The Facebook Live video was posted by Rayhan Ahmed, a USA  expatriate.

Speaking to The Daily Star over the phone, the six people yesterday said they went to Haripur area to join an arbitration to settle a matter. They said they had five different curries for dinner -- cooked meat of goose, duck, mutton, fish, and chicken.

Councillor Tareq said they found cooked meat of wild birds being sold at the restaurant. Councillor Eliasur said he was not aware of laws regarding conservation of wildlife.

Asked about the footage, Rayhan hung up the phone. He, however, deleted the footage from his Facebook account around noon yesterday.

This newspaper has a copy of the footage and screenshots of Rayhan's Facebook account.

ASM Jahir Uddin Akon, director of Wildlife Crime Control Unit of the forest department, said they take actions for crimes against wildlife based on information. "We had no information about the meat of wild birds being sold at restaurants in Haripur area. We will look into the matter."

He said councillors, who are representatives of the people, must abide by laws. "No one is above the law. If they are found guilty of having meat of wild birds, necessary actions will be taken against them."

Syeda Rizwana Hasan, chief executive of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA), said the video clip is a proof of why sale of wild birds at those restaurants is not being stopped.

The owners of this type of restaurants cannot be made aware of such illegal activity if people associated with laws go there, she added.

"This is not just showing disregard for laws, but also showing insensitivity. Based on this footage, the forest department must take legal actions against the restaurants. The councillors should apologise so that no-one becomes interested in going there," Rizwana said.