Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina met to sign the Bengal tiger conservation deal.

The 10,000-square-kilometre Sundarbans forest stands astride the two nations, but still both the nations did not take any serious measure to conserve the tigers in the forest, which were at the verge of becoming extinct in the coming years. Finally, Governments of the both the nations have realized the seriousness of the issue.

According to Forest and Environment Secretary of Bangladesh, Mesbahul Alam, the guidelines of the deal not only state protecting the tigers, but also protecting the other animals. As per the deal, the nations will appoint researchers and share information about tigers in order to preserve them.

As per Mr. Alam, "Cooperation between the two nations is essential because tigers roam freely. Smugglers and poachers also operate on both sides”.

As per the observers in the area, earlier there were 440 tigers recorded living in the forest in the year 2004, which has reduced to 200 tigers in all. The main reason of the decline is the illegal transfer of the tigers to other places and also the villagers residing in the forest killed the tigers, because of the attacks they made on the village.