The Indian Bengal Tiger is thought to be in a worse position than official figures would suggest, with some conservationists arguing that only 800 remain in the wild – a very different number from the 1,411 tigers the Indian Government claims still live within its national reserves.

At the beginning of the 20^th century there were an estimated 45,000 wild tigers living in India, today the species holds the unhappy accolade of being one of the WWF’s 10 key animals facing extinction. One of the fundamental problems for Tiger conservation is there is no agreed figure of their real population numbers.

Whether deliberately made up, or mistaken, the methodology currently used to measure Tiger numbers is fundamentally flawed. Methods such as counting pug marks (paw prints) are unscientific and do not present a reliable picture of the actual number in the tiger population.

Even more recently used methods of camera trapping and habitat and prey surveys have as of yet faced enough problems as to make the results of this most recent census unreleased. At the moment the true statistic is unknown.

Even if accurate tiger numbers are unknown, the cause of their decline is no mystery, illegal is poaching is primarily responsible for the decline in the population.

The Indian Government is however loath to own to the number of tigers poached, the government’s own reports in conflict with the figures insisted upon by its ministers. For example at the Ranthambhore reserve the organisation Tiger Watch has helped police make 47 poacher arrests.

These poachers admit to killing over 20 tigers, and yet the park authorities have not a single record of poaching incidence for the same period. Even poachers that are caught find little in the way of punishment, of the 72 arrests made last year only two resulted in conviction, and these were for poaching activities that had been running over the last 10 years. The deterrent is clearly not there.

Of the 37 reserves in India 16 are listed as being in a “poor” state where tigers may be extinct or at a real risk of becoming so. Tiger poaching can be a lucrative business in a country where poverty is rife and the human population continues to grow and need space.

A tiger pelt can be sold for $20,000 across the border in China, and the sandalwoods that are part of the tiger’s forest habitat are sought out by illegal loggers for their oil used by the medical and cosmetics industry, and can fetch 5,000 rupees per kilogram.  In the words of conservationist and tiger expert Aditya Singh; “The problems for the tiger are poverty, illiteracy and overpopulation. The big problems that India has are the problems the tiger has.“.

If the 800 figure is to be believed then the tiger stands to be extinct within India in the next 5 years. Worldwide the figure is not much better, there may be only 3,200 tigers left in the wild at all. With numbers falling at an alarming the rate, should the current connecting corridors joining reserves be removed, soon the Tiger may cease to be a viable species at all. Recognising the precarious situation the species is in the WWF has labelled 2010 the Year of the Tiger, deliberately coinciding with Chinese year of the Tiger.

The campaign seeks to work with world leaders to double the tiger numbers by 2022, meeting later this year with the leaders of tiger range nations in Vladivostok to discuss the way forward. However as Gethin Chamberlain at the Observer highlights “no where will this challenge be greater than in India”.

Before work can start here to get the poaching situation under control the Indian government must admit to the problems it is having with poachers and concede that their population figures are overestimations. Only then can the real work begin to focus on where tiger protection and habitat preservation are going wrong and solutions be found.

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By Rebecca Barnard