Race to save Bangladesh hound
In a rickety hut on the border with Bangladesh and India, two brothers are among the last local breeders of the Sarail hound, a dog on the brink of extinction.
Tall and lean with a powerful chest, pointed ears and bicolored fur, the rare hound – named after the border town of Sarail – has been treasured in the South Asian nation for centuries.
Their sharp eyesight and renowned hunting skills have earned them roles with the military and police, and as guard dogs, while masters love them for their devotion.
M. A. G. Osmani, who led Bangladesh’s freedom fighters to victory against Pakistan in the 1971 war of independence, is said to have been saved by one of two Sarails he owned when he was attacked.
But pure- bred Sarails – believed to have descended from English greyhounds and sighthounds owned by Mughal- era feudal landlords, or from hunting dogs brought by Arab traders – are dwindling in numbers with just dozens remaining in Bangladesh, according to some estimates.
“Many families in this town once had Sarail [ hounds],” Topon Rabidas, the younger brother, told AFP. “But nowadays only a few... families keep it, often for guarding or to ornament their houses with a piece of local history.”
Topon, 38, and his brother Joton, 40, are proud of their family’s legacy of keeping Sarails for generations. But the cost of rearing their dogs – a pair of two- year- old males – is taking its toll on the poor family. In the densely populated country of 168 million where some 30 percent of people live below the poverty line and access to land is scarce, Sarails are viewed as a luxury beyond the reach of ordinary Bangladeshis.
The brothers, both cobblers, say they mate the pair with bitches owned by neighbors and sell the puppies for up to $ 500 each so they can buy the huge amounts of chicken and beef devoured by them.
About 100 kilometers away in the capital Dhaka, wealthy owners are trying to save the breed, with few government resources devoted to conservation since a failed attempt to breed Sarails collapsed in the 1970s.