11 September 2007Alison Benjamin
A Bengal tiger. Photograph: James Balog/GettyTigers have resurfaced in an Indian rainforest almost three decades after it was thought poaching had wiped them out.
Up to 20 Bengal tigers have been sighted in a mountainous forest range in the western state of Maharashtra during an ongoing nationwide tiger census.
Vishwas Sawarkar, former head of the state-run Wildlife Institute of India, said: "There was good forest cover, an ideal habitat and ideal prey base but tigers were not sighted in the Sahyadri range since the late 1970s."
He estimates there are now at least 20 tigers in the 800 sq km (300 sq mile) Sahyadri range of mountains.
India is believed to have half the world's surviving tigers, but, a census in 2001 and 2002 showed their numbers had dwindled to 3,642 from some 40,000 a century ago.
Conservationist say the actual number of tigers in India now could be less than 2,000, based on the initial findings of the current tiger census, due to be made public later this year.
Mr Sawarkar said Sahyadri tigers may have benefited from poachers moving on to other areas. Tigers are hunted for their skins, which can fetch thousands of pounds, and their body parts, which are used in traditional Chinese medicine.
Conservationists hope the discovery will lead to Sahyadri being declared a protected tiger reserve."Once the tiger reserve is declared, the forest department must be given the necessary means to protect it," said Rahul Kaul, director of conservation at the Wildlife Trust of India.
The Bengal tiger is the only tiger found in the wild in India. It is the most numerous of all the six tiger subspecies surviving in the wild. There are thought to be up to 4,500 Bengal tigers in the world. All tigers are classified as endangered. Three subspecies of tiger are already extinct.
Peter Jackson, former chair of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) cats special group, said he was "astonished" by the news of the Indian discovery. "I've been involved in tiger conservation for 50 years. This is a very lucky find," he said.
He added that to ensure the poachers didn't start rushing in, the area had to become a tiger reserve and anti-poaching measures funded.
News of the discovery comes ahead of tomorrow's publication of the IUCN Red List of threatened species. Tigers have not been reassessed for this year's list because experts are awaiting the results of the 18-month census.
Mr Jackson said figures for the number of tigers in India had been greatly exaggerated in the past by reservation managers. "Past figures are very flawed because numbers have been boosted as a way to increase funding to those areas," he said.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/sep/11/conservation.india
