So worried is Singh with increasing reports of unnatural deaths of tigers in various national parks of the country that he has decided to personally take up the matter with some of the concerned states.

The Prime Minister’s concern comes slightly over a week after the Lok Sabha was informed that there were only 1,411 of the big cat left in a handful of India’s tiger reserves.

A day later, it was reported that 11 of the animals were found dead in one tiger reserve. The following day another was found dead, bringing the official tiger count to 1,399.

Faulty method

Last year was the worst since 2002 for tiger deaths. The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests has conceded that its method of counting tigers is so vague and faulty that there may be only 1,165 left.

Against normal mortality of 30 tigers a year, 66 were killed in 2009. Of these, 46 were killed inside tiger reserves while 20 were killed in the forests.

Needless to say the Prime Minister’s personal intervention was, to some extent, a reaction to the states’ inability to protect tigers.

So, at a meeting of the National Board for Wildlife on Thursday, Singh asked the states to more to save the few remaining tigers.

Union Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will also talk to state governments on the delay in notifying buffer zones in protected areas which was having a negative impact on wildlife.

There are 37 Project Tiger reserves in the country and 663 protected areas.

A majority of the states are yet to bring the identified buffer areas in sanctuaries, tiger reserves and protected areas under the legal ambit which would ban construction and any infrastructural projects.

“But the states are reluctant to do so. Hence the delay in the notification,” Ramesh said.

“The poaching mafia, with clandestine help from local politicians, are involved in the killings that would empty the forests of wildlife and make it easier for them to use the land for mining or construction,” he added.

Relocation of people

Thursday’s meeting also discussed the relocation of people living on the periphery of tiger reserves.

“Of the 80,000 families to be relocated from tiger reserves, only 3,000 have moved out so far. And 77,000 families have to be relocated over the next seven years, for which a total financial package of Rs 8,000 crore would be required,” Jairam said.

He promised that the Centre would support voluntary relocation from any protected area and pay compensation of Rs 10 lakh to each of the families.