New Delhi : The Central Bureau of Investigation team on tiger trail in Sariska has confirmed the worst fears - there is little probability of finding any tigers there. The team now says that the number of tigers in the last census - as many as 26 of them - was grossly exaggerated. At most, there might have been a dozen. It also believes that the female tigers died long before the last male tiger disappeared.

This indicates the neglect on the part of the authorities - they were not even aware of the male-female imbalance, let alone dop anything to correct it. The team also found clear evidence of poaching over the past couple of years, with a large number of poachers roaming freely.

The CBI team is understood to have concluded that the combination of neglect and poaching had skewed the pitch against the tigers. While there is no conclusive evidence of connivance between the forest staff and poachers, the fact that the killers had a free run on the reserve would certainly indicate that forest guards were terribly negligent.

According to the team, no tigers have been sighted in Sariska since July last year, with one sighting last November being now described as "disputed". The animal was seen from a distance by foreigners and could well have been a panther rather than a tiger, it is said.

The team's conclusion seems to be that age-related deaths of tigers may have occured between 1996-2002 and the surviving animals may have been poached. At least 7 tigers are said to have been killed over the last three years.