Disappearing tigers:

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Disappearing tigers

Early results from a tiger census in India indicate the population of the endangered big cats is drastically lower than previously assumed, wildlife experts and conservationists said on Wednesday.
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Early results from a tiger census in India indicate the population of the endangered big cats is drastically lower than previously assumed, wildlife experts and conservationists said on Wednesday.

Experts from the government-run Wildlife Institute of India (WII) presented initial results of a new count of tigers in 16 of India's 28 tiger reserves and their surrounding areas.

The WII, which has been monitoring tiger populations across India for the past two years, did not give a new estimated national total for tigers but said habitat destruction and human encroachment were leading to declining numbers.

"In general, the situation is not good," Y.V. Jhala from the WII said after a presentation of population estimates from around 16 of India's 28 tiger reserves and their surrounding areas.

"The tiger reserves are doing much better than what we expected but the outside areas have lost most of the tigers," he said, adding that 60 percent of India's population of tigers was believed to be outside the reserves.

India has half the world's surviving tigers, but conservationists say the country is losing the battle to save the big cats. There were about 40,000 tigers in India a century ago, but decades of poaching had cut their number to about 3,700, according to a count conducted in 2001 and 2002.

Conservationists said they believed the new census results suggested there was a decline of 65 percent in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, which has one of the largest populations of tigers in India.

"The indications are that all over India, it will be the same," said Belinda Wright, director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India
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