Tiger's death not to stop Sariska trans-location plans: Ramesh

"A team of experts from the National Tiger Conservation Authority is in Sariska to look into the incident. I admit there has been a failure of governance and administration, and I take full responsibility for that," Ramesh said here.

The Centre's plan to trans-locate tigers to the Rajasthan forest was mired in controversy from the beginning with wildlife researchers and conservationists questioning its wisdom. The big cats vanished from Sariska more than five years ago, thanks to poaching.

Ramesh, however, continues to back the trans-location plan. "This tragic episode will not stop our ongoing trans-location programme which has been scientifically prepared by the best of experts from research institutes such as Wildlife Institute of India. We will go ahead with it as planned," he said.

In the first batch, three tigers were brought to Sariska from Ranthambore in 2008, but they failed to produce an offspring. Genetic analysis carried out later revealed that they were siblings, prompting release of two more cats unrelated to the bunch present in Sariska in an attempt to trigger mating.

Now, it appears that one of the tigers brought in the first batch is dead possibly because of a territorial fight. The exact cause will be known only after the post-mortem.

After Sariska, tigers were translocated to Panna, where one of the tigresses delivered three cubs -- a conservation success.