Besides, there seems to be a lack of will on the part of the higher authorities concerned for curbing poaching in the country's largest mangrove forest.

"If any of us fires a bullet to save a deer or a tree, he has to sell 10 forest trees later to bribe the higher officials to save his job," said a top forest department official in Dhaka.

Poachers lay traps made of ropes in certain areas on the banks of the vast swamp of the forest where deer gather during high tide.

Groups of four to five poachers sneak into the forest and kill up to five deer in a fortnight, a number of poachers told this correspondent during a recent visit to the Sundarbans.

"The number of our prey varies. Sometimes we even do not catch any and sometimes we catch up to five deer," said a poacher asking not to be named.

"In my life I poached around 2000 deer," the 45-year old poacher who resides in a village near the forest under Shyamnagar upazila in Satkhira said with his eyes glistening with pride.

Some other members of another deer poaching group said they know eight groups from four villages near the Sundarbans who are poaching deer. They said there is a group in Mirgaon village, two each in Tengrakhali and Kultoli villages, and three groups in Chhoto Vetkhali village.

Most of the poachers prefer the right bank of Tushkhali river in Malancha area of the forest under Kadamtola forest station in Satkhira as the ideal place for laying traps, they said.

Local residents said apart from professional poachers, many people go to the forest with permission from the forest department and kill a good number of deer. Sometimes corrupt forest department staff, who accompany them, do not bar them from poaching due to underhanded dealings, the residents alleged.

Venison sells for Tk 120 a kilogram in the Sundarbans region. The local people and poachers said organised influential groups from Shyamnagar, Kaliganj and even from Satkhira town come to the area in private cars and buy venison. "Sometimes the meat is even sold in the capital," said a poacher.

The poachers said usually female deer become the victims since male deer often jump over the traps.

Sometimes the poachers sell deer trapped and killed a day ago. "We pinch and pull the dead deer's skin, if it comes off easily we do not sell the meat," said a poacher.

Station Officer of Kadamtola Forest Station Golam Mostafa however said he has no information about deer poaching.

Conservator of Forest Monoj Kanti Roy said if anyone poaches deer, legal actions are taken against him under the Wildlife Act.

He, however, said some sporadic incidents may take place, but those do not have much of an impact on the total deer population. "If the deer population decreases, it will automatically have an impact on the tiger population," Monoj said.

In recent years deer poaching increased significantly as the local people who used to earn their livings catching shrimp fry turned into poachers after the forest department had imposed a ban on catching shrimp fry, local residents and a number of poachers said.

Forest department officials are also reluctant to arrest poachers or other criminals because of their utter disinterest in attending court hearings.

Forest department staff posted in the Sundarbans said if they arrest anyone with poached deer or illegally cut woods in his or her possession and produce them before courts they have to keep attending the courts for a long time, even for several years, but they never get any travel allowance for attending the courts.

"If we arrest any poacher or other offenders we have to go to Khulna or Bagerhat to be present at the court as witness. Each trip cost me around Tk 300, but we do not get the money from the authorities," said a forest department official seeking anonymity.

Asked whether the authorities provide travel allowance, he said, "In my 30 years of service I did not get any travel allowance for the last 27 years."

An official in charge of a forest station said sometimes he cannot go out on patrols as two or three of his colleagues are either in Bagerhat or Khulna to attend court hearings of cases which were filed when they were posted there. "If someone goes on a leave the situation is usually aggravated," he said adding that sometimes he only remains at the station to guard the firearms and other valuables.

He said they have engine boats for patrolling, but the authorities never provide them with the fuel cost. "The system itself makes the officials indulge in corruption," he lamented.

Forest officials said their colleagues in deep forest usually have to cut deals with organised gangs of bandits in order to protect their age-old firearms and to save their jobs.

"We request the bandits not to loot our firearms and in return we allow them to extort money from fishermen and to loot valuable woods and sometimes even tiger hides," said a forest department official wishing anonymity.

It is not possible to challenge the bandits with age-old firearms and a small number of manpower. "Sometimes the bandits come to rest in the forest stations and our colleagues remain on guard while the bandits sleep inside the stations," said a forest guard who during his 30 years of service faced such situations several times.

"We must be supplied with modern arms and ammunition to curb crimes in the Sundarbans," said an official of the forest department. "The forest guards use guns manufactured in the 40s or 50s. They cannot even fire the weapons in one attempt as the bullets they use date back to 1961-1962."

The forest officials said sometimes the forest department staff do not even dare to fire their weapons due to legal complexities.