Missing tigers roil India

The apparent disappearance of tigers from one of their last remaining Asian enclaves has fueled a growing conservation scandal in India.

Wildlife officials are concerned about the reported elimination of tigers in the last year in the Sariska Wildlife Sanctuary in the desert state of Rajasthan. The demise of the park’s 16 to 18 tigers could signal trouble in other sanctuaries.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has ordered a police investigation into the disappearance and has appointed a task force of forest officials, wildlife experts and community leaders to evaluate the country’s dwindling tiger population. He also banned the practice of giving tigers to foreign dignitaries and established a wildlife crime prevention bureau.

India’s tiger population has shrunk from an estimated 40,000 a century ago to about 3,700 this year, according to the government census. Some wildlife officials put the number at closer to 2,000.

Selling dead tigers is illegal but lucrative. A single tiger can fetch up to $50,000 on the international market.

-- Janet Cromley