"This year the pugmark collection
is about 20 percent higher over the last census, but we
can't say immediately that it means a higher number of
tigers," Vyas said yesterday, adding that it was safe,
however, to call the tiger population "stable." He said
the high number of cub prints was also encouraging.
Pugmarks are as unique as
fingerprints, and plaster molds of the marks will have
to be analyzed in a laboratory to determine how many tigers
there are. In 2002, surveyors found 760 pugmarks belonging
to 271 tigers.
The census data will be included
in a UNESCO-funded biodiversity project on the behavior
of Bengal tigers, including a query into what prompts
them to attack humans. Tigers kill about 50 humans each
year on the Indian side of the Sunderbans. They killed
approximately 22 people last year on the Bangladeshi side.
The tiger population in India,
where the endangered animals are concentrated, has slipped
in the last 11 years from 4,300 to 3,500, mostly because
of poaching and habitat loss (Nupur Banerjee, Associated
Press, Jan. 21).
Copyright, National Journal
Group, 2004
