A pat on the back for wildlife officials is due, as the tiger count in Rajasthan's sanctuaries has increased to 44. Three years back, tiger lovers in India and other parts of the world were aghast when news came in that tigers had vanished from the Sariska Sanctuary of Rajasthan, where at one time they numbered a dozen. At the same time, the tiger census showed that the number of tigers at Ranthambhore National Park also was on the decline. Poaching was cited as the main reason for vanishing of tigers in both the parks. , Around that time, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Ranthambhore. Though wildlife officials were able to show him a tiger, the PM was not happy about the arrangements, particularly related to guarding of the forest. A plan was chalked out to save the tiger. Owing to untimely rains and some other reasons, a complete census of the tiger could not be carried out for consecutive years though wildlife authorities were sure the number of tigers had started increasing. This time, authorities were keen to count the tigers. The exercise was carried out in May. Then came the good news for wildlife lovers - the number of tigers in Ranthambhore and other sanctuaries of the state is on the increase. The latest census of tigers in four sanctuaries shows that their number is now 44, a dozen more than the last census of 2006. And more happy news for tiger lovers is that male tigers, which were on the decrease, have doubled in number. In Ranthambhore, the most populated tiger sanctuary, the number of yellow cats is now 36. In Kaildevi there are four, in Sariska three and Man Singh sanctuary one. The census was carried out by the wildlife department of the state government in collaboration with Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun and National Tiger Conservation Authority. The experiment to rehabilitate the tigers in Sariska from Ranthambhore was carried out successfully. Tigers have settled in their new home and are on their way to increase their families as one tigress is pregnant. Satisfied with the project to shift the tigers here, authorities have finalized a plan to relocate to more tigers in the first week of July. Shifting of tigers from Ranthambhore is being done for one more reason. With the growing number of tigers there, the territory of each tiger is shrinking, which led to incident of brawls between tigers, resulting in injury to one tiger. According to wildlife experts, a tiger needs at least 28 sq km as his exclusive territory ?