But more than poaching, the ministry is worried about poor habitat for tigers. Construction activities and population boom in the villages on its periphery. is exerting pressure on the parks. Ecology of several sanctuaries are of poor quality, unable to sustain wildcats that need vast territory and stable prey base. "Buffer zone sur­rounding parks are under dual control of park and revenue divi­sions. Encroachment, livestock grazing, firewood col­lection and poaching are rampant in these areas;" ministry offi­cials said in a presen­tation. It also said that the State Governments have not been able to ".allocate money or man­power for wildlife pro­tection. Besides this, some parks also bore the brunt of extremist activities.

The ministry rebuffed allega­tions that it was spinning unreal­istic tiger population statistics. Pugmark, tiger sighting and cam­era trap methods co-relate to tiger population except in parks like Sariska and Sunderbans, ministry officials said. "The data collected shows that we are within 95 percent confidence level in terms of " tiger population enumeration," the "officials asserted, The ministry, however, admit­ted that tigers in Sariska were in trouble. "Sightings have been going down since 1998", Project Tiger”director Rajesh Gopal said. Representatives of the CBI, which is investigating vanishing tigers from Sariska, said in its re­port to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that "poaching is a fundamental reason for disappearance of tiger in Sariska"

The ministry came under pressure after vanishing tigers from protected areas made it to the national headlines. The Centre committed, itself to provide financial and technical support to conservation efforts by State Governments.