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  PlanetArk 6 Jan 06
India Begins Count of Threatened Tigers
Story by Krittivas Mukherjee

MUMBAI - Armed with radio collars and high-tech cameras, hundreds of wildlife experts fanned out across a vast mangrove in India's east on Thursday as part of the world's largest census of the endangered tiger.

Alarmed by reports of large-scale poaching in India's famed tiger sanctuaries, about 250 officials used speedboats or walked through muddy creeks and marshland looking for tell-tale footprints, or pugmarks, in West Bengal's Sunderbans, the world's largest natural tiger habitat.

"This census is the world's biggest and the most scientific to date," Pradeep Vyas, the census chief, told Reuters from the Sunderbans, a 10,000 sq km (3,900 sq mile) sparsely populated mangrove marshland on the eastern coast.

Conservationists, who have been highly critical of India's efforts to protect the tiger, have also expressed reservations over the accuracy of the pugmark system, saying the method has in the past masked the big cats' dwindling numbers in the country's national parks.

In March, the Indian government was criticised after reports said the entire tiger population of up to 18 animals at the Sariska tiger reserve, one of the nation's most prized reserves, had been killed by poachers and that numbers across the country had fallen rapidly.

In response, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh formed a special taskforce to suggest ways of saving the big cats. For the first time, the latest tiger census will use specially designed computer programmes, camera traps and radio-collars tracked by satellite to avoid any duplication in recording pugmarks.

The last census in 2003 estimated there were between 260 and 280 tigers in the Indian part of the Sunderbans, home also to hundreds of saltwater crocodiles and rare river dolphins. Vyas said the first phase of the latest census would end on Jan. 10, during which experts would also try to study the food the health of the forest and the prey base of the tiger.

A century ago, there were about 40,000 tigers in India but now officials estimate there are at most 3,700. Some environmental groups say the number could be as low as 2,000.

Trade in tiger parts is illegal but poachers still operate with impunity, driven by the huge rewards. A single tiger can fetch up to $50,000 on the black market, where its organs and bones are sold for use in increasingly popular traditional Chinese medicine.

PlanetArk 6 Jan 05
FACTBOX - Tigers, the Largest of the World's Big Cats
Sources: Reuters, World Wildlife Fund, Save The Tiger Fund

WORLD: India began counting tigers on Thursday in the Sunderbans forest - the world's largest natural habitat for the big cats - using specially designed computer programmes to avoid duplication in recording pugmarks.

Here are five facts about the tiger:

- The largest of all cats, the tiger is one of the most fearsome predators in the world. It can weigh up to 450 kg (1,000 lb) and measure around ten feet (three metres) from nose to the tip of the tail.

- Tiger numbers in the wild are thought to have plunged from 100,000 at the beginning of the 20th century to between 5,000 and 7,000 today. They now range in the forests of south Asia, southeast Asia, southeastern China and the Russian far east. Fewer than 1,000 tigers are in zoos worldwide.

- A century ago, there were some 40,000 tigers in India. Now, officials estimate there are about 3,700 although some environment groups put the number at less than 2,000.

- Three tiger subspecies - the Bali, Javan, and Caspian - have become extinct in the past 70 years. The five remaining subspecies - Amur, Bengal, Indochinese, South China, and Sumatran - live only in Asia, and all are threatened by poaching and habitat loss. The South China tiger is on the verge of extinction, with just 20-30 estimated remaining in the wild.

- All five tiger subspecies are listed by the World Conservation Union as endangered. Threats to their survival include loss of habitat, poaching and trade in tiger parts for traditional Asian medicine. Trade in tigers is illegal but a single animal can fetch up to $50,000 on the black market.
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