By Krittivas Mukherjee
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Tigers are doing so well in one ofIndia's top reserves that authorities have agreed to expand itsboundary to give them a bigger area to roam, a rare piece ofgood news for a country struggling to save its big cat.
Better conservation efforts have led to a crowding oftigers at the Jim Corbett reserve, and the animals have begunstraying into buffer zones from core areas, officials said.
The 1,300-square km (500-square mile) reserve at theHimalayan foothills now has 164 tigers, up almost 20 percentover the past five years. Other animal numbers are also up atthe reserve.
"Tigers are a highly territorial animal and the young willmove away from where they were born and carve out their ownspace," said Rajesh Gopal of the National Tiger ConservationAuthority.
"If we cannot increase the carrying capacity of a reserve,which is easier said than done, there will be internal conflictand mutual killing of tigers."
To avoid this, the authorities have decided to expand JimCorbett's buffer zone by 30 square km initially.
But Gopal said the challenge was to ensure the safety ofspillover tigers that tend to get killed by poachers andvillagers.
The success at Jim Corbett is a rare silver lining in anotherwise grim fight in India to save tigers from poachers andhabitat destruction.
Poorly armed and badly paid guards, mismanagement andcorruption undermine the protection of tigers in India. Thereare thought to be just 1,411 left in India, according to a newsurvey that cut numbers by half since 2002 census.
The decline is even more alarming considering India hadabout 40,000 tigers a century ago. Conservationists say it isunlikely the dwindling population will ever recover, but thegovernment is not giving up just yet.
In January, India said it would spend an estimated $150million (76.7 million pounds) to save its tigers over the nextfive years, using some of the money to shift villages andtribal communities out of tiger habitats.
Experts say wildlife planning needs to be much better. Forinstance, experts say around 300,000 of India's poorest peopleliving in its 28 tiger reserves need to be shifted out becausemany of them help poachers kill tigers and cut down forests.
Globally tigers are also in trouble. World Bank PresidentRobert Zoellick said in the United States on Monday that theworldwide number was less than 4,000 from over 100,000 acentury ago.
He was speaking in relation to a new global initiative bythe World Bank to save tigers from extinction.
(Editing by Jerry Norton)