December 16, 2001	Sunday	Ramazan 30, 1422

SAZNEKHALI (India), Dec 15: One of the world’s largest tiger census operations — in the Sunderbans reserve in eastern India — ended this week with officials saying the number of big cats has not fallen since the last count in 1999.

India has the largest tiger population in the world but their number has fallen to 3,500 from about 4,300 just 11 years ago.

Conservationists estimate that 200 to 300 tigers are dying every year in India due to poaching and development projects.

Two years ago there were 254 tigers at the Sunderbans and 30 in adjoining areas of the delta region on the Bangladesh border where the Ganges flows into the Bay of Bengal.

In the week-long census which ended on Friday, over 300 people scoured the swampy Sunderbans criss-crossed by creeks and tiny tributaries of the Ganges, in search of tiger foot prints, normally visible during low tide periods.—Reuters