But they can’t tell how many. Nobody can. Nobody has ever set foot in many stretches of this 1,985 sq km vast tiger reserve in Arunachal Pradesh’s eastern reaches.

Signs of the big cat’s presence are rare in the 700 sq km stretch covered during tiger census. Little wonder nobody takes the official count — 64 in 2003 — seriously. Ecologist Aparajita Dutta, who has walked 1000-plus km here, can vouch for only two. The unofficial consensus in Deban claims a population of 5 to 15. “Let’s wait till the census result due in mid-January,” says Pait.

After Namdapha was declared a national park and tiger reserve in 1983, the only road through the forest — connecting Miao and Vijaynagar at the Myanmar border — was abandoned. Out of bound from Deban, the pristine forest would have remained reasonably safe but people belonging to the Lisu tribe started encroaching from the Myanmar side in the late 1980s. Soon the decision to abandon the Miao-Vijaynagar (MV) road backfired.

While most tribals around Namdapha hunt for meat, the Lisu tribals, originally from Myanmar, knows the market value of tigers. A number of forest ground staff and locals hold that the Lisus have killed many tigers and smuggled them out across the Myanmar border. Some consignments are also sent across the Chinese border to Tibet.

As the Lisus carry on with their poaching racket, forest guards mostly sit helpless at Deban. The only way they can reach the Lisu settlements deep inside the core area is on foot. It takes a few days when the weather holds.

Pait sounds helpless: “We don’t have the manpower. The police can’t help as the settlements are often inaccessible from the Miao side. There are funds problems and infrastructure is poor.”

A decision to reconstruct the MV road will first require the PWD and the forest department to resolve a longstanding dispute over who controls it.

Meanwhile, whatever be the number of surviving tigers, their future seems sealed. Consider how Project Tiger functions in Namdapha:

• There are only 18 forest personnel to patrol the 1985 sq km reserve. Leaving out the unexplored areas, it is impossible for them to man even the 700 sq km “accessible area”.

• Under the shadow of insurgency, arms and weapons are best kept under lock and key. All four vehicles are kept in Miao headquarters.

• With no bridge across the Noa Dehing flowing along the reserve boundary, the staff take turns to visit Miao regularly to maintain supply. This effectively means about 70 per cent staff presence at any given time at Deban.

• During the seven-month long monsoon, the bumpy 24-km ride to Miao is a nightmare. Desperate measures to get emergency supplies across the river have often proved to be fatal. “A couple of our staff died trying to cross the river on boat,” says Deban ranger A.K. Dev. The promised suspension bridge has been under construction since last year.

• A number of forest and other government officials flout conservation norms openly. A former park manager was renowned for his fishing skills. Another former field director was forced to leave Namdapha for preventing some PWD officials from hunting deer. Top officials, allege the ground staff, stay put at Miao and rarely visit Deban.

Research officer S.S. Chandramani laments the lack of interest in Namdapha: “Tigers apart, three other big cats — common, snow and clouded leopards — are also found here. Namdapha has an altitudinal variation of 200-4571 m. The flora ranges from the peninsular to the alpine. We need better management to look after this unique biosphere.”

Contacted repeatedly, Project Tiger director Rajesh Gopal refused to comment.