**2. Rationale of the study**

Quality of the wildlife habitat largely depends on the nature and composition of vegetation as it determines the nesting, breeding, and feeding potentiality of the habitats. The habitat degradation is causing loss of regeneration of many of the fodder plants. Moreover, overexploitation is also responsible for sharp reduction of the population size of the fodder plants [6]. It is important to detect the food habit of the herbivores and identify the fodder plants and their interactions with animals for sustainable management of the protected areas through wildlife conservation and undisturbed breeding ground [7]. But, in Bangladesh, there is a great dearth of information and research on the wild fodder-bearing trees. Information on the status and availability of plants will be helpful for better planning and management interventions of the PAs as wildlife habitats. The plants used as fodder by the animals are rich in necessary nutrition, i.e., protein, carbohydrate, fiber, etc. The ability of fodder plants to provide this range of nutrients is considered to evaluate potentiality of their nutritive values. Considering the mentioned situations, the study was undertaken to assess the overall composition of fodder plants as well as highlight their contributions for better maintaining a wildlife habitat. However, there is still a need for investigation of the nutritive values as many of the species were not explored yet [6]. We believe this study will fill up the knowledge gap on fodder yielding plant composition in the PA of Bangladesh as well as it will show the way for further research and interventions to habitat conservation and sustainable management.

#### **3. Status of wildlife in Bangladesh**

Bangladesh is the home of more than 3883 species of lower faunal groups along with 653 fish species, 49 amphibians, 154 reptiles, 706 birds, and 128 mammals. The fish communities including both freshwater and marine species are so diverse that they account an astonishing 3% of the world's total fish species. In addition to the 383 resident birds, there are 323 migratory birds which visit our country especially during the winter. Both of these represent an amazing 7.2% of the world's total bird species. Mammals constitute 2.28% of the world's mammal species among which seven are marine in nature [8]. Though our wildlife diversity is very rich, but over

**75**

area of 340 km2

covers about 5770 km<sup>2</sup>

*Wild Fodder Yielding Plants in the Protected Areas of Bangladesh*

the last century unfortunately 13 species have become extinct from Bangladesh. Due to continuity of habitat degradation, many more are on the brink of extinction. Different reports indicated that 23% of vertebrates of Bangladesh are facing different levels of threats which are increasing exponentially with rapid habitat destruction. The situation is even more grim for the 57% of reptiles and 36% of mammals which are facing different levels of threats in our country [9]. Recently, the IUCN listed 40 species of mammals, 41 aves, 58 reptiles, and 8 amphibians that are struggling under various degrees of threat of extinction. It is obvious that the present wildlife population is confined and distributed irregularly in limited forest

**Vertebrate groups No. of species References** Fish 653 [9] Amphibians 64 [8] Reptiles 174 [8] Birds 711 [8] Mammals 133 [8]

Among the 5 global ecological domains and 20 global ecological zones of the world, 33% of Bangladesh belongs to tropical rain forest GEZ and 67% to tropical moist deciduous forest GEZ of the tropical domains of global ecological domains [10]. The variation in climatic features, i.e., temperature, rainfall, soil, and hydrology, led to the development of 25 bioecological zones with distinct characteristics. Bangladesh has 1.45 million ha of forest land (9.8% of total area) of which 1.21 million ha (84% of

forest) is natural forest and 0.24 million ha (16% of forest) is plantations [10].

*speciosa*, *Dillenia pentagyna*, *Adina cordifolia*, *Terminalia* spp., *Albizia* spp., etc. The Sundarbans, the largest single patch of mangrove forest, is located at the southern extremity of the Padma (Ganges) and Jamuna (Brahmaputra) delta which

height is the main feature of this forest. These species are adapted for living under saline condition and regular inundation by the tides. Succulent leaves, stilt roots, pneumatophores, and viviparous germination are the key features of these plants. *Heritiera fomes*, *Excoecaria agallocha*, *Nypa fruticans*, *Sonneratia apetala*, *Rhizophora* spp., *Ceriops decandra*, *Phoenix paludosa*, and *Acrostichum aureum* are the common plants of the Sundarbans. Wetlands of Bangladesh also support a large number of

Vegetation characteristics divided the natural forests of Bangladesh into evergreen/semievergreen, deciduous, and mangrove forest. Noncontinuous freshwater swamp is distributed in the northeast basin. Tropical evergreen and semievergreen forests constituting 44% of natural forest are extended over Chittagong, Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), Cox's Bazar, and Sylhet covering an area of 6700 km2 which is about 4.54% of total landmass of Bangladesh. Dominant native plant species include species of *Dipterocarpus* spp., *Artocarpus* spp., *Ficus* spp., *Syzygium* spp., *Mangifera* spp., *Tectona grandis*, etc. The moist deciduous Sal forest of Bangladesh is mainly consisted of Madhupur tract which is located in the central part covering an

[10]. Dominant trees of this forest are *Shorea robusta*, *Lagerstroemia* 

area [11]. Fairly dense evergreen plant species of 10–15 m

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85205*

patches of Bangladesh (**Table 1**).

*Number of recorded fauna of Bangladesh.*

**Table 1.**

**4. Wildlife habitats in Bangladesh**


*Wild Fodder Yielding Plants in the Protected Areas of Bangladesh DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85205*

**Table 1.**

*Wildlife Population Monitoring*

**2. Rationale of the study**

the appropriate combination of necessary abiotic and biotic components for suc-

The global forests are drastically shrinking day by day due to a huge pressure on forests for conversion to other land use, human settlement, excessive resource extraction, etc. All these are affecting biodiversity negatively particularly the wildlife habitat which is degrading in an alarming way which leads to rapid shrinking of wildlife population and making them threatened. Declaring protected area (PA) is a worldwide strategy accepted for wildlife habitat conservation and ensuring undisturbed breeding ground by halting further fragmentation and degradation of habitat. This chapter presents the status of the protected areas from different corners of Bangladesh in terms of fodder yielding plant composition as well as the importance of fodder plant management for maintaining a healthy wildlife habitat. We identified three protected areas of characteristic features for studying the wild fodder yielding plants so that these represent all the PA of Bangladesh. This chapter also presents a brief account on the protected area management in Bangladesh as

Quality of the wildlife habitat largely depends on the nature and composition of vegetation as it determines the nesting, breeding, and feeding potentiality of the habitats. The habitat degradation is causing loss of regeneration of many of the fodder plants. Moreover, overexploitation is also responsible for sharp reduction of the population size of the fodder plants [6]. It is important to detect the food habit of the herbivores and identify the fodder plants and their interactions with animals for sustainable management of the protected areas through wildlife conservation and undisturbed breeding ground [7]. But, in Bangladesh, there is a great dearth of information and research on the wild fodder-bearing trees. Information on the status and availability of plants will be helpful for better planning and management interventions of the PAs as wildlife habitats. The plants used as fodder by the animals are rich in necessary nutrition, i.e., protein, carbohydrate, fiber, etc. The ability of fodder plants to provide this range of nutrients is considered to evaluate potentiality of their nutritive values. Considering the mentioned situations, the study was undertaken to assess the overall composition of fodder plants as well as highlight their contributions for better maintaining a wildlife habitat. However, there is still a need for investigation of the nutritive values as many of the species were not explored yet [6]. We believe this study will fill up the knowledge gap on fodder yielding plant composition in the PA of Bangladesh as well as it will show the way for further research and interventions to habitat conservation and sustainable

Bangladesh is the home of more than 3883 species of lower faunal groups along with 653 fish species, 49 amphibians, 154 reptiles, 706 birds, and 128 mammals. The fish communities including both freshwater and marine species are so diverse that they account an astonishing 3% of the world's total fish species. In addition to the 383 resident birds, there are 323 migratory birds which visit our country especially during the winter. Both of these represent an amazing 7.2% of the world's total bird species. Mammals constitute 2.28% of the world's mammal species among which seven are marine in nature [8]. Though our wildlife diversity is very rich, but over

cessful reproduction and survival varies by species [5].

well as potentiality of those areas as wildlife habitats.

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management.

**3. Status of wildlife in Bangladesh**

*Number of recorded fauna of Bangladesh.*

the last century unfortunately 13 species have become extinct from Bangladesh. Due to continuity of habitat degradation, many more are on the brink of extinction. Different reports indicated that 23% of vertebrates of Bangladesh are facing different levels of threats which are increasing exponentially with rapid habitat destruction. The situation is even more grim for the 57% of reptiles and 36% of mammals which are facing different levels of threats in our country [9]. Recently, the IUCN listed 40 species of mammals, 41 aves, 58 reptiles, and 8 amphibians that are struggling under various degrees of threat of extinction. It is obvious that the present wildlife population is confined and distributed irregularly in limited forest patches of Bangladesh (**Table 1**).
