The Palamu reserve, which lies along the northern edge of the Chhotanagpur plateau, started in 1974 with 22 tigers. It recorded the highest count of 62 tigers in 1984. The 2004 official census puts the figure at 38 which means over 24 tigers have gone missing in 20 years.

But that's the official ver- sion. The fact is that tourists haven't sighted a single tiger in this reserve for years. Palamu Tiger Reserve di- rector A.N. Prasad seems to believe otherwise. He says the status of tigers in Palamu is

good and they are well taken care of. "We stand by the 2004 census of tigers. Since 1996 the tiger count has been in this range of 40 to 44," he said while admitting that "the nineties were not good for the tigers here. It was a bad patch."

But if there are tigers in the reserve, why haven't tourists been able to spot them? Where are the tigers that the official cencus counted ? Accordmg to the reserve’s poaching record, there were two cases of poaching in , 1990, three in 1991, four in 1992, one in 1993 and four in '~ 1995. Also, a few tigers re- portedly died of snakebites while another tigress died during a fight with a bison. A pack of wild dogs also mauled a tiger to death in the reserve, forest officials said. But all these casualties still don't explain the missing tigers considering that there were 62 tigers in the reserve 20 years ago. Incidentally; there are doubts about the genuine- ness of that figure too. Forest officials admit that it is possible that some ambitious official inflated the number of tigers in there serve to further his own career: Which makes it quite like it that today; Palamu's tigers probably exist only on paper.