Discovery of Herpetofauna

Md.Hasan Chowdhury It was just afternoon we(me, Tamim & Nissan) got down from the "Srimongal to Bhanugach" local bus at the 'Lewwa' bus station. Tamim was with his entire house on his back, the huge belongings seem to the same length and weight of him! Lawachara National Park (LNP), recently declared as LNP receives the highest rainfall of the country during the rainy season since long. The same happened at that moment. The rain was looming for us and received with rainy and wetly welcome. We became soaked and much more to reach the rest house on the hilltop. After having a wash, we decided to have a look around for a while as the sunlight was coming to fade in the jungle. One and half an hour's walk through a trail made us really rejuvenate except Tamim, who was still devoting his time to be a part of the wilderness, looking for the helps, snakes and lizards. For a while, we lost him from our three - member team. We came back to the premise of hilltop rest house, it was around 6:30pm. Near to 7:00pm we instigated to quest the still unexplored but richest biodiversity hotspots of the country.Lawachara National Park is such unique type of forest that still supporting the highest number of primate species These are Hoolock Gibbon the only lesser ape in the country, A good population of Wild Boar & squirrel could also be found in remote corners of the park and being nocturnal, becomes active at night and in the early morning. The notable bird species are Oriental Pied Hornbill, Greater Racket-tailed Drongo, Red- headed Trogon, white-rump Shama, Emerald Dove, Necklaced Laughingthrush, Yellow-footed Green Pigeon etc. While walking through the trail, we are fortunate,to hear the bark of the Barking Deer. The snakes like Green Pit Viper, Common Vine snake, Rock python reticulated etc. with many more unknown are supposed to be here in the park. "You have only 16 species (9 species of amphibians and 7 reptiles) of herpetofauna in this park!?" came to light when Tamim asked. It was on the way to rest house an information board has been set aside by Nissan containing the information on that. We had to make fun with Tamim to say, "It is now your turn to be the update reference!" "There is no entry fee!...surprising" express, "why shouldn't we identify more species?", Tamim commented. I made fun of him to say, " if they authority would take fees then how could you see the species if they thought themselves as they are captured into a cage like zoos".