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Twenty-four Bengal Monitors Were Seized in Khagrachhari; 14 Were Dead

Close view of a wild Bengal monitor in Bangladesh
Conservation · Trade & poaching

A joint operation by the district administration and Forest Department in Khagrachhari, Bangladesh, recovered 24 Bengal monitors (Varanus bengalensis) from five sacks on 12 August 2026. Ten of the lizards were alive and 14 were dead.

Officials said a mobile court acted on a tip-off in the Chenggi Square area of Khagrachhari town. The detained woman told authorities that she had bought the monitors for Tk 22,000 in Baraiyarhat, Chattogram, and brought them to Khagrachhari to sell.

Khagrachhari Divisional Forest Officer Md Farid Meah said the ten surviving monitors were released into natural forest at Alutila the same night, while the dead animals were buried. Assistant Commissioner and Executive Magistrate Durjoy Goswami said the detainee was sent to Khagrachhari Sadar Police Station and police were instructed to file a case.

The Bengal monitor is listed in CITES Appendix I, which covers species for which international commercial trade is subject to the convention’s highest level of restriction. The Khagrachhari operation concerned domestic capture and sale, and forest officials said enforcement against hunting and capture would continue.

Sources and image credit

  1. The Daily Star. (2026, August 13). Woman detained with 24 Bengal monitors in Khagrachhari.Main report on the joint district administration and Forest Department operation. It directly quotes the Khagrachhari Divisional Forest Officer and the responsible executive magistrate; 24 Bengal monitors were recovered, 10 alive and 14 dead, and the survivors were released in Alutila forest.
  2. CITES. Varanus bengalensis species listing.Primary regulatory reference confirming Bengal monitor is listed in CITES Appendix I.

Image: Wild Bengal monitor (Varanus bengalensis) in the National Botanical Garden of Bangladesh, 14 January 2014. Photo: Md shahanshah bappy. Source: Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0. Representative species image; not one of the animals recovered in Khagrachhari. · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

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