The official census conducted in 2004 indicated that between 16 and 18 tigers lived in the reserve. But from the middle of the year no tigers could be seen. A report produced in March 2005 by the Wildlife Institute of India confirmed that there were indeed no tigers left in Sariska Tiger Reserve.

This appeared all the more shocking that in 1973 a special programme, Project Tiger, had been established to ensure the conservation of tiger in India. At its 25th anniversary in 1998 Project Tiger was credited for having stabilised tiger numbers in the country.

As a result, upon confirmation of the Sariska debacle, the prime minister requested that the Tiger Task Force be set up, with a mandate to review not only tiger conservation, but also the entire principles and methods upon which conservation is conducted in India.

This document is based on information provided in the Tiger Task Force report (link to full text provided below).

Sariska Tiger Reserve
The reserve is located in the state of Rajasthan. It was established in 1978, with a historical background as a hunting preserve for royalty, then wildlife sanctuary after 1958. At present it covers an area of 881 sq. km (330 sq. mls) of undulating plateaus and wide valleys, with a vegetation mostly of dry deciduous forest.
Apart from tiger, wildlife includes leopard, jungle cat, hyena, jackal, sambar, spotted deer, blue bull, wild boar, and more.

Poaching: the direct cause
An enquiry by India's Central Bureau of Investigation in 2005 revealed that tigers at Sariska had been killed by poachers since 2002, with the last six in the summer monsoon of 2004. Other animals such as leopard were also targeted. The poaching activity appeared to be linked to a well established network of tiger parts traders.

Management failure to detect the problem
The number of tigers at Sariska has been a subject of dispute over the years. In the late 1980s the official number was reduced from over 40 to 18-22 by the reserve authorities. Since then and until 2004 the number was kept at 24-25 tigers. This was then downgraded to 16-18 in the 2004 census, although there is evidence that the actual count was only 12-14.
Even this may have been a gross over-estimation. While the data collected by park management shows a decline in the number of tigers from 1999 onwards, park authorities continued to report a number of 24-27 tigers. In addition, the population had a highly skewed sex ratio with very few females, and no cubs were born in the reserve since 2002.

The Tiger Task Force reveals in its enquiry the series of management errors and failures which resulted in an erroneous assessment of tiger numbers, as well as misreporting of the results.
The reserve authorities failed in their management mission, and as a result the poaching problem could neither be detected, nor acted upon.

Failure to associate the local people
The most serious problem threatening the future of the reserve relates to the breakdown in relations between reserve management and the local populations. There are 28 villages within the reserve, and nearly 200 in its vicinity.
The demise of tigers at Sariska has been aided by extreme hostility existing among these people against the park and its tigers. Many villagers assisted poachers in killing tigers and removing carcasses. On the other hand, relations between villagers and park management were so strained that guards could not get any help from villagers.

It appears that Sariskas officials, and the state forest department, are largely responsible for this state of affairs:
- the recording and rights of the people who live in the reserve, begun in 1983, has not yet been completed,
- villagers live in extreme poverty and are dependent upon the resources of the reserve for their living, mostly through livestock breeding, yet they are denied any form of development,
- villagers are prepared to relocate but distrust the process because of past experience. Authorities have worked on relocation plans without involving the people concerned, and some previous cases have ended in failure.

As a result the local people blame the reserve for everything: their lack of livelihood, inadequate development infrastructures in their villages, and the persistent harassment by reserve authorities. Indeed it is thought that hunters may have been first called to the reserve by some villagers seeking a solution to their conflict with tiger.