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Tiger count tells a sorry tale' screamed the headline of a leading newspaper on a sultry May morning. It was a page one lead story: a bolt from the blue for Indians who woke to the harsh reality that the National Animal had suffered a body blow. It was not the first time that such a thing had been reported. Over the past few years, there have been quite a few sting operations conducted by media houses to present the real picture. Experts have been crying hoarse over the catastrophic decimation of the species. Yet, f or the past many years, the country was lulled into a fall sense of security that all was well in the 30 odd wildlife reserves in India. The babus claimed time and again that not only were the tigers safe and sound, in fact they were thriving in the tranquility of the reserves. Nothing could be further from the truth!

The Wildlife Institute of India (WII) based in Dehradun, burst that bubble by presenting the truth to the nation last month. The preliminary report released talked of how tiger numbers had reduced quite drastically. According to WII estimates the tiger population in 16 of the country's 28 tiger reserves in 2006-07 had fallen by over 50%. From 1,233 tigers in 2002, the reserves across Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Chattisgarh currently house only 490 or so tigers.

The story was picked and splashed across the media, some papers even terming it as the worst decline in tiger population since 1973. There were numerous articles, features in papers, debates and discussions on TV channels. Everyone wondered what had gone wrong, and that too so suddenly. How in the world was that possible? What had happened to all those tigers? Had they been killed for skin or bones, or had they just vanished? These were questions that were troubling every mind.

The answer was fairly simple: technology had 'happened' to the tigers. Or, more appropriately, to the art of counting tigers. Indeed for over two decades the science of census had been turned into an art by the officials manning the 28 tiger reserves in India. Using pugmark methodology, the census artists arrived at numbers that were vastly exaggerated and no way matched the numbers on the ground. That was the very case in Sariska.

Going, Going, Gone
In December 2004, a news report highlighted the fact that there were no more tigers left in the Sariska Tiger Reserve, Rajasthan. It came as a rude shock, as till then the official record showed a healthy population of around 25-30 tigers in the reserve that is spread over an area of about 880 sq km, with three core areas (areas where no human are supposed to be present) and buffer zone (forested area with tribals).

In the wake of the uproar that followed, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced a CBI inquiry into the matter and even set a Tiger Task Force to study the issue and suggest remedial measures (the report was submitted and yet no action was taken, as usual).

"Sariska was simply a case of inaction. The poachers dealt a fatalistic blow to the few tigers that existed there. While all the time officials were talking about 25 tigers in Sariska. Every researcher knew it was a farce, because no one had sighted a tiger for quite many years. Those were just paper tigers, that existed solely on paper," says Valmik Thapar, a renowned tiger conservation activist and author of quite a few books on the tiger, the latest being, The Last Tiger. He was also on the Tiger Task Force set up by the Prime Minister.

A Tale of Tall Numbers
At the turn of the twentieth century, there were an estimated 40,000 tigers in India. Indiscriminate hunting and loss of habitat resulted in a drastic dip in numbers, and by the '70s, not more than a few thousand remained. There was international uproar as India houses close to 50% of all tigers, and if they disappear here it would effectively mean the end of the species. The future of the tiger looked dreary. The Prime Minister, at the time, Indira Gandhi, deciding to take matters in her hands set up a team to study the issue and come up with a plan to save the tigers. The team was headed by erstwhile ruler of Jammu & Kashmir, Dr Karan Singh. Based on the report submitted by the team, Project Tiger was launched amidst much fanfare in 1973.

Initially, Project Tiger was conceived for six years, from 1973-79, and was launched by setting up eight tiger reserves across the country (Sunderban was added at the launch, taking the number to nine). Over the years, the project received much success and was even termed as the 'most successful wildlife conservation program' in the world, by reputed international agencies. Gradually, the number of tiger reserves increased to 30 and by 2005, India had 90 national parks and 501 wildlife sanctuaries.

Thus, going by official figures, there were over 3,600 tigers in India by 2002. But the real story was something else. The figures had been arrived using pugmarks, which according to many is a faulty procedure. As it was solely based on human discretion, the figures could be easily inflated to reflect an increase in numbers while there was none.

"Pug mark census methodology was turned into an art by the officials. It was used to fabricate numbers. By the 90s, we all knew that the tiger population was declining, yet the reports would show that the numbers had actually increased," says India's premier tiger scientist and conservation activist Raghu Chundawat

Arriving at the Right Numbers
In the latest survey conducted by WII, the institute used advanced technology like DNA sampling and camera trap techniques to arrive at the current figure. The WII estimates showed that tiger numbers had fallen in Madhya Pradesh by 61%, Maharashtra by 57%, and Rajasthan by 40%. Compare this with the government's first tiger census; conducted under the Project Tiger initiative, begun in 1973, it counted 1,827 tigers in the country that year. Since then the tiger population saw a steady rise to reach 3,700 tigers in 2002. Use of technology has effectively curtailed the numbers by half.

"Tiger count is a wrong terminology being used by everyone. We are not counting tigers; we are estimating the density of the tigers in a given area using scientific methodologies to arrive at the figure. Numbers by itself can be quite an erroneous game," says BC Choudhary, senior scientist, WII.

Camera trapping is one of the technologically advanced ways of estimating the population of tigers. In this, cameras are placed across the jungle and whenever a tiger crosses a beam, the camera captures an image. As every tiger has a unique stripe coat, there is no question of the numbers being duplicated.

"Fortunately, after 40 years of wasting public money and effort, the pugmark census total count methods have been abandoned. I have been saying for 22 years that it did not work but the bureaucratic lethargy carried it so far...at great cost to tigers and to tax payers. Now even the government appears to be switching over to sampling-based methods I have used since early 1990's," says renowned Indian scientist, K Ulhas Karanth, director, India Program & technical director, Tigers Forever, Wildlife Conservation Society.

"Camera trapping is useful and cost effective for getting good estimates of tiger numbers in critically important reserves and populations. It is not meant for recording tiger presence across large areas or states or the country. It is a powerful and specific tool for a specific purpose," adds Karanth.

Raghu Chundawat collaring a tiger

The Poaching Menace
Without an iota of doubt, the biggest threat to the tiger is from the two-legged animal that violates the park rules and comes armed with sophisticated guns. Poaching and illegal trafficking of tiger body parts is big business. Data available at Project Tiger Directorate indicate that out of 173 deaths of tigers during 1999-2004, 83 were due to poaching. Out of the remaining, 60 deaths were due to natural causes, 13 due to electrocution, 7 due to poisoning, and 10 due to infighting. Thus, loss of tiger life due to poaching, poisoning, and electrocution works out to 103, which accounts for more than 60% of tiger deaths, reveals a CAG report for the year ended titled, "Conservation and Protection of Tigers in Tiger Reserves."

Selling tiger skin and body parts is a highly lucrative proposition in foreign and domestic markets. Apart from tiger skin, nails, bones, tooth, fat, male genital, etc fetch anything from $300-500 per item. Tiger parts are high in demand in China, where they are used in traditional medicines. Other countries like Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, are also known to be destinations for tiger parts. Not only those, sheikhs and the emirs in the Middle East are known to pay high price for tiger skin.

There are no two ways about it. If you want to save the tiger, you need to stop the poaching. Technology can be employed in the battle against poaching in a variety of ways, right from investigation to prosecution.

Sujoy Banerjee, director (Species Conservation), World Wildlife Fund (India) talks of how in the UK, the government has used a high-tech application to dissuade people who were stealing rare birds' eggs from the nests: "The authorities identified these poachers and noted the registration number of their vehicle. Now, whenever these vehicles are found moving in such protected areas or towards Scotland (as these poachers also shifted activities to Scotland), the movement is tracked using cameras fitted by the roadside. This has helped in curbing their activities largely."

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