Pradesh, which is also called the "tiger state of India". Best managed But Madhya Pradesh's forest minister Rajendra Shukla says all the news is not bleak. "Panna is our only park which has lost on this count," he says. "Three of state's reserve forests - Kanha, Bandhavgarh and Pench - have been adjudged among the best managed tiger reserves in the country." Mr Shukla has drawn up a seven-member committee comprising the state's chief conservator of forests and experts, to ascertain why the tigers have disappeared. Indian officials regularly carry out tiger censuses in the national parks The chief conservator, HS Pabla, told the BBC that the report would be submitted some time in August. He said that tigers from Sanjay National Park "could have strayed to theadjoining area, which is now part of the state of Chattisgarh, created some years ago." The authorities have recently transported two female tigers to Panna from another nearby tiger park, and sought permission from the central administration to bring in four more, two of them males. Project tiger India had 40,000 tigers a century ago, but the numbers dwindled fast because of hunting and poaching. The country banned tiger hunting and launched an ambitious conservation effort named Project Tiger to increase the population of the endangered species. A number of forest areas were declared national parks and funds allotted for protecting the tigers. Though the programme bore fruit initially, with the decline in numbers checked because of a hunting ban, recent years have seen a phenomenal rise in