"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