Tiger poaching continues; funds misused: Conservationist

New Delhi: Tiger, the national animal of the country, is being poached regularly in almost all reserves and authorities are sitting idle, eating up the the funds meant for the animal's welfare, said a Madhya Pradesh-based tiger conservationist.

Addressing a news conference here this afternoon, Ms Shehla Masood said the tigers are being killed by the poachers and nobody is stopping them.

''Even those who have been getting paid to conserve and protect the national animal are helping tourists and well-politically connected people to kill the tigers in buffer zones,'' she alleged.

Talking about Panna reserve, she said lots of tourist facilities are coming up near the tiger reserve centres and the ''well-connected'' people have access to the restricted areas.

Displaying the photographs of a tigress, which was killed recently in Madhya Pradesh reserve, she said it was proved beyond doubt that the animal was killed at the hour when nobody is allowed in the park.

''Some minister's son was named in the killing, few officers of the park have also been suspended but nothing concrete has been done till date,'' she said showing pictures of some private vehicles in the restricted areas of the reserve jungle.

''We had asked for forensic report on those confiscated vehicles but they were let off under pressure as it would have helped reach the culprits. This was done to destroy the evidence,'' Ms Masood said.

''The tigress was killed by repeated hits by a private jeep and the killers were supported by the park authority,'' the conservationist said.

''I'm not alleging, its been proved by the photographs taken by the tiger lovers,'' Ms Masood said adding that the way postmortem was done with an axe and a knife in the open, shows how funds were being misused by the officers.

Nineteen per cent tiger population of the country is in Madhya Pradesh and people responsible for good health of the national animal are helping poachers kill them.

''Police don't even file cases of missing tigers...there is no coordination between them and the officials at various parks...and that's proving dangerous for tigers,'' she said.

No proper report was sent from Panna reserve for the past many years, they sent fake reports giving wrong information about the number of tigers there and later it was proved that no tiger was left the park since 2005..but they were still getting the money for conservation, she said.