The New Nation - Internet Edition

Bagerhat Correspondent

A fishermen association Sunday claimed that some 3,000 fishermen were killed and 700 others went missing in Dublar Char following cyclone Sidr that battered the coastal belt of the country on November 15.

Dublar Char, which consists of six small islands was the first point hit by cyclone Sidr. It is part of Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest covering nearly 6,000 square meters.

Major (rtd) Zia Uddin, president of the Dublarchar Fishermen Group, disclosed this yesterday at a press conference at Bagerhat, 10 days after the cyclone disaster amidst general belief that the actual death toll must be higher than that of the official figure.

Zia said some 30,000 people, most of them fishermen, came to cyclone shelters at Dublar Char on the fateful night, but due to lack of accommodation, some 10,000 to 12,000 people were shifted to different channels inside the Sundarbans mangrove forest.

He said most of those people were killed by the storm.

Relief and Disaster Management Ministry put the overall death toll at 3,061 while the armed forces division at 3,199 so far.

Meanwhile, forest officials yesterday recovered a corpse of Royal Bengal Tiger from a canal inside the Sundarbans, which is an abode of about 100,000 to 150,000 deer, 500 Royal Bengal Tigers and over100, 000 monkeys and rare species of birds.