Wednesday, May 4 2005 11:51 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has issued notice to the Centre on a petition seeking CBI inquiry into the dwindling tiger population in the Project Tiger reserves across the country.

The petition was received by a three-judge Bench, headed by Justice Y K Sabharwal, which asked the Centre as to why the CBI should not be directed to take up investigation in tiger reserves, which face problems similar to the Sariska Tiger reserve.

Recently, the CBI had submitted a report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh alleging that not a single tiger was left in the Sariska tiger reserve due to largescale poaching and negligence of forest officials.

The Court will take up the matter again tomorrow (May 5, 2005) on the petition sent by conservationist Ashok Kumar of Delhi.