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India's Royal Bengal tiger population has fallen by more than half in six years, leaving the animal on the brink of extinction, according to figures released yesterday.

The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) said that there were about 1,411 tigers roaming the sub-continent, down from an estimated 3,642 in 2002. A century ago there were more than 40,000. The species had suffered “due to direct poaching, loss of quality habitat, and loss of its prey”, the government body said.

Conservationists have long argued that the guards employed to protect India's patchwork of tiger reserves are badly paid, under-armed and poorly trained. Facing an army of poachers, who send pelts, claws, whiskers and paws to China where they are highly prized ingredients in folk medicines, watchmen often desert their posts.

“This comes as no surprise,” Belinda Wright, the head of the Wildlife Protection Society of India, said. “Wildlife crime is entrenched and we are not prepared.” India's booming human population is encroaching on tiger territory, clearing the jungle and razing the buffer zones created to give the species breeding space. The northern state of Rajasthan is among the areas worst hit. Only about 30 tigers remain in its only reserve.

Brighter spots include the Corbett Tiger Reserve, also in the north, which recorded the highest tiger density in the country - 164 in 1,524 sq km (588 sq miles). The park is one of a handful of relatively successful reserves in which the fate of wild tigers now rests. “If we keep these zones safe, create inviolate core regions surrounded by a stable buffer, the tiger can survive,” Rajesh Gopal, of the National Tiger Conservation Authority, said.

However, faith in the Government's ability to halt the tiger's decline is waning. The latest fall in numbers prompted charges that past figures were grossly inflated - “paper tigers” conjured up to hide the failure of India's 35-year-old flagship conservation scheme, Project Tiger. Some local politicians, eager to publicise healthy populations to encourage tourism, have rejected the latest report.

India has said it will pump about six billion rupees (£77million) into protecting tigers over the next five years. The latest estimate is the result of a survey that conservationists say is less open to manipulation.

How to keep track

-Look for tracks; 12 to 15 traps — consisting of a camera, infrared motion sensor, and battery — are then set

-After a week, the photographs can be analysed. The camera is triggered by any moving animal, and will catch the same one repeatedly, so an accurate count requires analysis of the stripe patterns of every cat on film

-Repeat at least once. Multiply the first tiger count by the second, and then divide by the number of tigers that appear in both samples

Source: Big Cat News

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