SHIVPURI, DEC 7: With less than 800 tigers left in Madhya Pradesh, the loss of five tigers -- including three cubs -- at the Madhav National Park here, has come as a big jolt to efforts for preserving the species.

The cause behind the deaths, which occurred over the past three months, is still unknown. The two adult tigers are supposed to have succumbed to a virus, but even post-mortems have been unable to determine the agency. At the Van Vihar in Bhopal as well, three tigers have died, supposedly affected by the same mysterious virus. ``We have now inoculated the animals with vaccines which had to be imported from the US,'' says Vivek Jain, Director of the park. Because of difficulty in procuring the vaccine, the same could be done only last week, whereas the first death happened at the end of last August.

Paucity of funds has been the bane of this park, which was given the status of a full-fledged national park only recently. It is the second-largest tiger reserve in the State, with 12 tigers under observation, and at least another two at large within the park. The 12 surviving tigers, four of them males, are the offspring of Tara and Petu, who were brought here from Kanha 10 years ago.

The problem in funds has meant that park authorities have stopped the animals from mating. This is the mating season for tigers and the three cubs who died had been born accidentally, when Tara's one-year-old male cub -- kept in close proximity -- mated with her. Another tiger, Naresh, who had wandered into the park from the wild, attracted by the scent of the females, is now in captivity and by far the most ferocious of the lot. The caretaker here feels that Naresh would be the ideal partner for the eight tigresses, but for fear of increase in the number of inmates, he has been confined to a small cell. The insufficient income of the park has come in the way of a proper diet for the tigers. At present, 135 kg of meat is procured from butchers in Jhansi. The keepers are not too sure of the quality and feel it may have led to the death of the two tigers.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.