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No tigers spotted in Sariska National Park
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NDTV Correspondent

Thursday, January 27, 2005 (Jaipur):

The tiger, one of the most magnificent animals of the jungle, is also among the most critically endangered.

And with no tiger movement evident in the Sariska National Park for the past six months, there is now a sense of alarm.

"Recently an alarming situation has arisen and we are not able to find traces of tigers in the area. We had visited the area and are investigating what has happened ?" says R P Kapoor, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Rajasthan.

Tigers are usually kept a track of by noting their pug marks, scratches on barks of trees and by keeping an ear open for their roars.

Eerie silence

But recently the jungles of Sariska have been strangely silent.

"They have been breeding successfully in the past, they cannot just disappear unless there is some type of human interference. There are very dangerous systems of poaching now, you don't have to use a gun, you can also poison the animal," says Shantanu Kumar, environmentalist.

In the 2003 census, it had been estimated that about 20 to 25 tigers inhabited the national park. In 2004, heavy rainfall had made it impossible to accurately track the big cats.

And now worried officials will begin another census from the first week of February find out what has been the fate of the tiger in the Sariska National Park.

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