The anomaly in the latest tiger census in the state including at the Kawal wildlife sanctuary in Adilabad has raised doubts over the methods of tabulation followed by the officials. The variation in the figures were revealed when Kawal sanctuary officials increased the tiger count from nine to 19 on being questioned by senior officials in Hyderabad on the low number of the animals. In the first round of census, the sanctuary officials counted pug marks of the big cats. Later, they added sightings by local people to the earlier count. But reports of DNA fingerprinting of droppings show that the number of tigers is as low as seven. The Jannaram wildlife divisional forest officer, Mr A. Kishan said, "Initially we collected pug marks. Later we added sightings by the locals. Shepherds sighted the tigers and we calculated the number at the specified time. Due to acute shortage of water, the tigers had migrated up the hills to the area around the Kadam reservoir." "Tigers are confined to the vicinity of springs, water reservoirs and the hills during summer. May be after summer we will get sightings in the plains too. On the other hand it is very difficult to collect pug marks from the hills," he said. The Kawal sanctuary covers 893 sq km in the divisions of Jannaram and Nirmal in Adilabad district. The census conducted in Nagarjunasagar, Srisailam Wild Life Sanctuary found 70 to 85 tigers in the reserve. This figure is higher than that released recently by the Tiger Conservation Authority (TCA). An official of the reserve accounted for the discrepancy by stating that cubs were not counted by the TCA.