The controversy over the number of tigers in Rajasthan refuses to die. The reports over the total elimination of the species in Sariska has even provoked a letter from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the state Government besides his asking the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe into the matter. Chief Minister Vasundhra Raje, who is slighted at the fact that an inquiry was ordered without state consent, has now ordered a parallel departmental inquiry.

Earlier, she had set up a task force to look into the problem. The slew of investigations has yielded some results. The CBI claims to have arrested local poacher Hira Lal Khateek while recovering two tiger skins sold to notorious skin smuggler Sansar Chandra, a resident of Delhi.

According to Hemant Priyadarshi, SP of the Railway Police at Ajmer, one Balwan Bagaria of Haryana has also been arrested and panther skins recovered from him from the Chetak Express.

The prime suspect Chandra however remains absconding. Although convicted at the age of 16 in the mid-seventies for poaching, he had spent only a year and a half in jail. Hailing from a family of traditional dealers in skins and trophies before the Wild Life Protection Act came into force, he had managed to evade arrest as he could never be booked

In April 2004, as a probe revealed, locals at Gogunda, a tribal area in Udaipur district, were hired for killing the panthers. Painstaking investigations against Chandra and others resulted in their anticipatory bail applications being denied forcing them to surrender. He was arrested and sentenced to five years imprisonment along with eight others. However, he was released on bail following an appeal. The police too could not recover any evidence against him as he was a mastermind having engaged the services of local gangs.

A few months ago, Chandra's wife and son were arrested by the Jaipur Police. While they were behind bars, Chandra remains absconding.

The Chandra stalemate apart, there are other issues as well. The forest department has withdrawn its appeal against an ex-parte decision against it in the case involving the construction of the Aman Bagh hotel at Ajabgarh, partially on forest land that forms a part of the tiger reserve. It questions the state Government's sincerity in saving wildlife.

In yet another development, Forest Minister Laxmi Kant Dave has started blaming the previous Congress government for allowing hotels to come up despite a notification banning construction within 500 metres of the Ranthambore National Park. He says the dwindling number of tigers is a creation of the Congress regime.

Interestingly, he has reacted only after he was made a target by former forest minister Bina Kak. Until then, there was no investigation ordered into the matter of hotels coming up so close to tiger reserves or on the issue of a credible tiger census. The alleged connivance between poachers and the local population also remains untackled. Some say local miners who are under pressure to shift out of the national park actually support the elimination of tigers in the forest.

In effect therefore, the CBI may have succeeded making some headway in the case at Sariska but there is still along way to go.

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