India is a key player in efforts to conserve the dwindling global tiger population, which has plummeted to just a few thousand. Wildlife experts say tigers could be extinct in 20 years. Illegal poaching, fueled by a thriving trade in tiger parts, and natural habitat loss drove down numbers in India from about 40,000 a century ago to 1,411 at the last count in 2008.
Ramesh said out of 38 government-monitored tiger reserves, 12 were in good condition and nine were satisfactory. Seventeen are in a very, very, very precarious state," he said. He did not specify how many tigers were at risk. "You could have a Panna or a Sariska in any of these 17 at any point of time," he said, referring to two well-known reserves which lost their tiger populations.
A special panel set up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in 2006 thousands of villagers inside India's reserves would have to be relocated to protect tigers from poachers and smugglers.
Poaching is very profitable and poor villagers often help poachers in return for much-needed cash, while villagers also often cut down forests where tigers live to use as farmland.
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