The head of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) said recent surveys had indicated an ``alarming reduction in tiger numbers.'' The CITES Secretary-General, Willem Wijnstekers, said: ``Even if some of the alarming reports emerging from India are not wholly accurate, there can be no doubt that India's wildlife continues to be plundered by poachers and unscrupulous traders.'' There are about 3,500 to 3,700 Indian tigers left, according to official estimates.

CITES believes the current numbers may overestimate the tiger population.

Mr. Wijnstekers took the unusual step of writing directly to the Prime Minister to complain about the lack of an organised official response by Indian law enforcement agencies to ever more effective poaching networks, despite repeated promises.

``It seems, for reasons unknown to us... that internal developments have either not taken place or that such work is moving slowly,'' Mr. Wijnstekers wrote in the letter dated April 12. ``One of our problems is that we do not see things really happening,'' he told journalists.

Mapping project

Meanwhile back in India, a project to use satellite images and computers to map the tiger population has gained urgency. The map project will build on the latest survey of India's forest cover unveiled, expected to show a sharp decline in the habitat and population of the tawny Indian, or Royal Bengal, tigers in the subcontinent.

The Wildlife Institute of India (WII) is using satellite images, survey maps and ground patrol reports to produce a dynamic computer picture of the solitary animals and their habitats after reports there may be only 3,600 of the tigers left compared to 40,000 six decades ago.

``We started the project two years ago in Madhya Pradesh [home to the Panna tiger sanctuary] but now we are mapping reserves, tiger densities, poaching and even seizures to see the national network of trafficking,'' the map project team leader, Qamar Qureshi, said. His team in Dehra Dun said it plans to complete the project by November, when India will launch its first-ever census of prominent or endangered species.

India's stepped-up efforts to map tigers in the wild came after reports in January that 26 tigers were missing from Sariska National Park and officials responsible for the sanctuary had failed to report poaching. There are also reports that 16 tigers are missing from the prestigious Ranthambore sanctuary.

``There had been a total absence of professionalism, planning or applied science. The situation is pathetic,'' Mr. Qureshi said of previous efforts to protect and track the tiger population in India. He said the loss of the tigers and their habitat may have a silver lining if it brings more professionalism to wildlife management in India. ``This process will lead towards a bio-diversity assessment and we began with the tiger as it is the poster boy of the jungle,'' he said, adding the methods adopted by his team would make ``fudging of figures too complicated'' by bureaucrats who run the sanctuaries.

Bureau set up

The reports of poorly-run sanctuaries prompted the Prime Minister on March 17 to set up a National Wildlife Crime Prevention Bureau amid fears that many of the tigers in 27 state reserves which span 37,761 square km may have fallen to poachers. ``I am deeply concerned about what is happening in our forests. Reports of the decline in the tiger population have once again alerted us to this grim reality,'' the Prime Minister said in early April.

Tigers are killed for their pelts and body parts that are sold to traditional medicine shops in Asian markets, with one beast worth as much as 217,000 dollars, according to a WII scientist, Bivesh Pandav. ``The poaching is on in a massive scale and whatever is left is threatened by settlements or farming in the forests,'' he said.

The shrinking tiger populations are also hit by smaller habitats that isolate small pockets of the animals. This raises concern about genetic diversity as they normally roam vast distances in search of mates.

B.C. Chowdhury, head of the WII's Endangered Species Division, said half measures were not enough to end the slaughter and the government should hire professional biologists.