the matter, wildlife conservationists in the region have sought the government to move the Tiger Foundation for three tiger reserves in Assam so as to sustain the popularity of Kaziranga being the haven for tigers.

The need of the hour has also been stressed on effective tiger conservation mechanism and a strong anti-poaching stand.

Elsewhere in the country, tiger deaths continue at an alarming rate with statistics provided by Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI), a prominent wildlife non-government, showing that at least 66 tigers lost their lives between January 1 and August 19 this year.

Of these, 23 died due to poaching and the remaining 43 died of a variety of reasons such as infighting, old age, tiger-human conflict, accidents and diseases.

According to the statistics of WPSI, in the lasteight months, Uttarkhand in the North and Karnataka in the South have recorded particularly high numbers of tiger deaths. This illustrates that the problem exists throughout the country.

National tiger census figures released in January 2008 showed a mere 1,411 tigers alive as compared to 3,508 in 1997, showing a drastic drop of 60 per cent.

In the light of the above facts, efforts being made by the Centre to prepare the first-web based database on the endangered species to facilitate information exchange among the governments and agencies on illegal trade and the conservation plan in the country is appreciable.

To be modelled after the EU-Trade in Wildlife Information Exchange (EU TWIX), which is presently being used by over 431 wildlife law enforcement officials across 31 European countries and 93 enforcement