Entrance to the Sariska Tiger Reserve (top) Photo: Rajesh Kumar; a tiger in its natural habitat

Some 35 km from Alwar, where the road leaves the plains of Rajasthan to curl up along the forested slopes of the Aravalli hills, tourists bound for Sariska catch their first glimpse of the ‘tiger’. Painted by unskilled hands on a roadside plaque, it stares down at vehicles speeding by, informing their occupants of their entry into the national park. Until about three years ago, when the real thing was still lurking in the wilderness, not many paid heed to this crude piece of handiwork.

These days, however, the plaque commands much tourist attention. After all, there are no tigers left in Sariska anymore.

More than a year has rolled by since a poaching debacle in Sariska was exposed to the world. In August 2005, a five-member Tiger Task Force (TTF), at the behest of the Prime Minister of India, tabled a report proposing several measures to ensure proper conservation of tigers in the country. “Urgent steps” to restore Sariska and rehabilitate tigers in the reserve was one of the force’s key recommendations. Not much, however, has happened to that effect yet. And Sariska thus continues to be categorised as an area that has been wasted as a viable tiger habitat.

Sariska is just 881 sq km of tiger territory in a country where nearly 37,000 sq km of land remains devoted to the conservation of the big cat.

But it’s not an isolated case ? going by a new study, titled Evaluation of Tiger Habitat at the Tehsil Level and carried out by the Project Tiger directorate and the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehra Dun.

Through the years, tigers have become locally extinct from as much as 60 per cent of Rajasthan, in terms of districts historically known to contain tigers. Estimates for other important tiger-bearing states are equally foreboding. West Bengal has lost 47 per cent of its tiger habitat over time, Uttar Pradesh has yielded about 53 per cent, Uttaranchal is poorer by 28 per cent, while Maharashtra has only 49 per cent of it left. The increase in human population, degradation of forests for agriculture and grazing and natural resource extraction could be reasons for the loss.

“While much research has been done on the tiger in the past, there is little data available about its habitat, which is extremely crucial for its conservation,” says Project Tiger director Rajesh Gopal. “This compilation needs to be taken as a reference point for all future conservation work, since it shows us how much of available tiger habitat we still have and need to focus on,” he says.

The study, which took about four years, comes in the wake of another Project Tiger report assessing forest cover in Indian tiger reserves.

Released in April, the report indicates a total loss of 94 sq km of forest cover within tiger reserves in India, and a further loss of 124 sq km in the outer surrounds of reserves, between 1997 and 2002. “These findings are essential steps towards assigning priorities and identifying crucial links for the purpose of saving the tiger,” says Gopal. “And instead of lamenting about what we have lost, we need to put all our efforts in trying to protect what we still have,” he says.

The only problem to this effect, however, is the time that’s required to set the ball rolling. Four months after the TTF report was tabled, the Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Bill was tabled in Parliament, seeking to establish an all-new National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) as the overseer of tiger conservation in India. As a statutory body, the NTCA would score over Project Tiger ? which plays an advisory role ? by being empowered to sanction state-level personnel for inept handling of affairs in tiger reserves.

Besides ensuring accountability, the NTCA would also have the power to control tourism, coordinate research and monitor diversion of forest land for ecologically unsustainable uses, among other activities. “If set up, the NTCA would be a major step in the direction of tiger conservation,” says P.K. Sen, former Project Tiger chief and current director of tiger conservation, Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), India.

Optimistic though that may sound, the Bill was mired in controversy the moment it was introduced. In several sections, the draft of the Bill used the phrase “tiger-bearing areas”, presumably to define areas where tigers were present. However, critics ? the Left Front being one such lobby ? reportedly read beyond the interpretation to suspect that the draft meant to secure large tracts of forest land under the pretext, much of which the Tribal Bill sought to regularise as revenue land for the benefit of tribes traditionally living in such areas.

The necessary edits ? required to minimise controversy ? have been made, as is indicated by a copy of the draft The Telegraph has obtained. However, the Left Front still doesn’t appear to be convinced. “We don’t have any objections to the Bill as such, but want the Tribal Bill to be considered first, since it is better defined,” says CPM politburo member and Parliamentarian Brinda Karat. “The other Bill still seems to lack in definition.”

Both Bills are slated to come up for consideration when the Monsoon Session of Parliament begins this week. But if the Wildlife Amendment Bill is shelved once again, it would mean further delay in kicking off conservation efforts. That, effectively, would impede the implementation of many measures originally proposed by the TTF at the field level.

One of the few advancements that have nevertheless been made in the field is the start of a fresh tiger census. The process is about to enter its second phase, and Project Tiger stresses that data from the first phase has already been obtained. Unlike previous countings, the new census uses evolved technology meant to make more accurate estimations. Besides, it deploys personnel from the Centre to ensure that figures cannot be fudged by state wildlife officials, as was the norm before.

However, critics see a problem here as well. “Most people who use the technology in the field are not adequately trained to do so,” says wildlife activist Valmik Thapar. “Hence, no matter how evolved the technology may be, it may continue to return inaccurate results,” he says.

That apart, it may also lengthen the census process. Even Project Tiger admits it would take about six months more before data from the second phase filters in. When it finally does, the entire census process would have taken close to one-and-a-half years.

Meanwhile, the tigers will continue to be killed, some fear. Data provided by Delhi-based NGO Wildlife Protection Society of India says 43 tigers were killed in 2005 ? even while Sariska was creating headlines worldwide ? and 10 more up to June 15 this year. It’s a loss many consider dear, given that there may be no more than 1,500 tigers left in the wild, if unofficial estimates are to be believed.

Gopal, however, is optimistic. “What has gone wrong over two decades can’t be put right in a matter of months. It will take time, but we will eventually succeed. And tigers will survive,” he says.