This Article is From May 02, 2009

The vanishing tigers in Panna

The vanishing tigers in Panna
Panna (Bhopal): It is a very bad news for the big cat. What has always been suspected is now a confirmed nightmare -- the Central team visiting Madhya Pradesh's Panna Tiger Reserve has found no male tiger. The roar has been silenced, and the pugmark has been erased from Panna.

Thirty five tigers that lived here have all allegedly gone missing. And on Saturday morning, a three-member central team confirmed the worst.

"They have made it into another Sariska. The same things are being repeated here as well. There too not a single tiger is left. So first, they got two tigresses and later one tiger was relocated. Same thing is being repeated in Panna. We are going to submit a report to the central government and recommend that action should be taken against the guilty," said P K Sen, Chairman, Special Investigative Team.

The team will file its report in 90 days but it has already said that tigers have been disappearing for the past six years at a steady pace.

Recently, two tigresses were relocated from Bandhavgarh and Kanha national parks to breed with the only surviving male tiger in Panna. But in the last one month, even he has vanished.

"I am not denying its poaching, but we have no proof for that. If there is poaching we have to find new ways of controlling poaching," said H S Pabla, Wildlife Conservator, Madhya Pradesh.

Poaching, encroachment on tiger habitat, or simply negligence -- today in India there are just 1,400 tigers left. Just 10 years back, the number was 4,000.

India's National animal is on the verge of extinction.

Panna and Sariska: Do they have more than one thing in common -- the missing tigers and the hands that wiped them out? No one knows the problem, but it's time to fix responsibility -- who did it and why was it overlooked?
.