Authorities in Bangladesh killed six tiger poachers over the weekend during a shootout in a national park, police said.
The 45-minute firefight erupted as police launched a crackdown in Sundarbans National Park, according to SM Moniruzzaman, deputy inspector general of police in Khulna Range. Five officers were injured in Saturday’s shootout.
Police recovered three tiger skins and five guns, Moniruzzaman said.
Sundarbans is about 180 kilometers (112 miles) southwest of Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka.
The mangrove forests of the park are home to rare creatures, including the endangered Royal Bengal Tiger, according to the World Heritage Center.
They are the only mangrove forests in the world where tigers are found.
The Bengal tiger is found primarily in India, with smaller populations in Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, China and Myanmar, according to the World Wildlife Fund. “It is the most numerous of all tiger subspecies with fewer than 2,500 left in the wild,” it said.
The World Wildlife Fund estimates that a minimum of 106 tigers are left in Bangladesh.