Indian park offers cash reward for spotting missing tiger

Nov 26, 2007, 14:23 GMT

New Delhi - The forest department of India's Rajasthan state announced a reward of 1,100 rupees (about 27.64 dollars) Monday for anyone who could provide information about a missing tiger after a 10-day search yielded no clues, news reports said.

The tiger, named Yuvraj (prince in Hindi), went missing from Rajasthan's Ranthambhore National Park, located about 175 kilometres south-west of state capital Jaipur, IANS news agency reported.

'We have constituted teams to find this tiger, which has not been seen in the national park for over 10 days. We have decided to offer a cash prize of 1,100 rupees to the person informing us about the tiger,' a forest department official was quoted as saying.

This is the second time Yuvraj has gone missing from the park. Officials said the tiger had walked out of the park in November 2006 but returned after a few days.

Ranthambhore is among the few parks in India where a recent census showed the number of tigers had increased to 32 from 26 in 2005.

A report compiled by the state-run Wildlife Institute after a two-year survey said there were just 1,500 tigers left in Indian national parks and forests in 2007, down from 3,600 in 2003.

Poaching for tiger parts is rampant in India as the claws and bones are used in a thriving Chinese medicine market.

The animals are also killed by villagers who live within or on the borders of tiger reserves.