Mass awareness is necessary to protect the existing wildlife in the country, experts told the launching ceremony of the updated version of "Wildlife of Bangladesh -- Checklist and Guide", written by wildlife expert Mohammed Ali Reza Khan, yesterday.

Dr Kamal Uddin Ahmed, secretary to the environment and forests ministry, who was chief guest at the programme at Dhaka Reporters Unity, said the government was struggling to protect even the reserved forest of the country. 

"The public and the government have to work together to create mass awareness to protect the wildlife," he said.

Enam Ul Haque, former president of Bangladesh Bird Club, and Istiaq Uddin Ahmad, the country representative of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), were also present.

Dr Reza Khan said, "Wildlife of Bangladesh -- Checklist and Guide is the first book on wildlife in Bangladesh that provides not only the Bangla, English and zoological names, distribution and status of animals, but is also a field guidebook on almost all 1,082 species of wildlife in the country. The book contains a few lines of descriptions of 64 out of 66 amphibians, 174 out of 180 reptiles, 711 out of 730 bird species, and 133 out of 140 mammals that live or are likely to live in the present territory of Bangladesh. 
Dhaka University first published the book in 1982, while the updated 586-page version was published by Chhayabithi Prokashani.