SARISKA (India): It was once one of the favourite hunting grounds of India’s royalty. Flamboyant maharajahs in natty breeches combed the sprawling Sariska forest nestled in the low lying Aravali hills in the desert state of Rajasthan, hunting for the many tigers that roamed the jungle. But, today, there’s an eerie silence in Sariska. It’s been months since anybody heard a tiger roar in Sariska and activists fear the story may be the same in sanctuaries across India, which has almost half the world’s surviving tigers.

“It’s probably the biggest conservation scandal in modern times,” said Belinda Wright, executive director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India.

“There are some parks with none or so few tigers it’s not a viable population. Sariska has been an incredible wakeup call.”

A recent World Wide Fund-India report says there may be no tigers left in Sariska, a rich deciduous forest which until last year was home to about 16-18 tigers, but where you now only see stunning peacocks and delicate spotted dear roam freely.

“The damage to the Sariska Tiger Reserve is likely to have taken place between July and December 2004. If any tigers remain, their numbers are likely to be small,” said the WWF report.

Panic over India’s dwindling stock of tigers really set in after another non-government group said last month that at least 18 of 47 tigers in the famous Ranthambore park, which is also located in Rajasthan, could have disappeared in the past year.

Then, the Times of India said this month poachers may have also killed six big cats, including tigers and leopards, in another big sanctuary, Bandhavgarh in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, between April and December last year.

POLICE INVESTIGATION: Alarmed by reports of a rapid fall in tiger numbers, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has ordered a police investigation and created a new task force to save the endangered species.

He also banned giving tigers to foreign dignitaries and established a powerful wildlife crime prevention bureau. Since the reports which have raised questions about India’s tiger conservation programme, the question on everybody’s lips is: where have all the tigers gone?

Tigers are poached for their skin, claws and bones used in traditional Chinese medicine, and as coat trims. A single tiger is said to be worth some $50,000.—Reuters