Kathmandu, March 3, 2006. Even as the tiger census is currently underway in protected areas of the country west of the Bagmati river, experts say the number of big cats could go down in much as the same way the number of rhinoceros went down in dramatic manner in the census conducted last year.

But Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) officials have declined from conceding that the number of tigers could have gone down in the intervening period after the census held in 2000. The claim is based on a view that tigers perhaps do not face poachers as the rhinoceroses.

The counting based on a mix of camera trapping and pugmarks has concluded in Royal Chitwan National Park and Royal Sukhlaphanta Wildlife Reserve while it is going on in Royal Bardiya National Park. The outcome of the census is closely guarded. The last census held in 2000 had found the number of  panthera tigris at 356.