Patna, July 30: The environment and forests department quiz to mark International Tiger Day on Friday has run into differences among officials and wildlife experts.

Two of the answers attributed to the department have not matched with those given by experts closely associated with tiger projects in the country. (See chart) The experts claimed answers the department gave for questions 3 and 4 were incorrect.

The forests department said 145 people submitted their replies to the quiz questions through text messages by Friday midnight - the deadline for the quiz. "It is because tigers smell things that they are able to detect their prey or mate even from far-off places," said a senior official in the department associated with the quiz, today. "As far as the biggest tigers are concerned, it is surely the Royal Bengal Tiger among those still existing (barring those which have become extinct)."

Tiger experts differed.

K. Ullas Karanth, founder trustee and director at Centre for Wildlife Studies, told The Telegraph on Friday evening that a tiger's strongest ability was its sense of hearing, followed by sight, and not smell.

On the other "big" question, Jimmy Borah, one of the national coordinators for Tiger Programme of WWF, India, told The Telegraph: "The Siberian tiger, also known as theAmur tiger, is the biggest in size among all the tiger species alive."

While the forest department officials and experts differ on the answers, the minister, Tej Pratap, refused to answer yesterday any of the five questions his department listed for the quiz. He did not even reply the easiest of the lot - in which district was the Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR) - the state's only such reserve - is situated. Answer? West Champaran.

However, the forests officials said the answers received for the quiz will be scrutinised over the next couple of days after which names of the winners will be declared. The selected winners will be offered a free trip of two nights and a day to the Valmiki Tiger Reserve.

"The trip will be organised after the conclusion of the monsoon season as the VTR is closed for visitors in the rains," said the official.

But the experts questioned the veracity of the quiz. "On what basis are they going to select the winners, when the officials themselves are considering wrong answers? Besides, it reflects how attentive the government is towards tiger management, as the officers are unaware of basic facts about the big cats," said a tiger expert based in Patna. "If a person does not know about the basic characteristics of an animal, he would not be able to ensure the animal's proper upkeep and safety."

Senior officials of the forests department, including chief wildlife warden U.S. Jha and principal chief conservator of forests (head of forest force) D.K. Shukla, were unavailable for comment.