A ghost with kohl-lined eyes butchers tourists who disobey the ways of the jungle, man eater tigers make mincemeat of those who dare to tread their path, and imbecile teenagers go rabbit shooting with pistols in forbidden, tiger-pugmark laden, jungle area.

All this, and some super sexy songs, make up Bollywood's latest glittering offering "Kaal". But behind the scares and shivers, it makes a statement the country's environmentalists and government are grappling to heed - save tigers.

Quite simply because the big cat is in big trouble in India. "There is major fudging in tiger numbers," Belinda Wright, tiger activist for more than three decades told.

According to the 2001/02 census, India had 3,642 tigers. At present, the number is believed to be around 3,500. But Wright said that might be inflated.

"We are blessed if there are 2,000 tigers," said Wright. The trouble often is that successive heads of India's natural reserves pump up tiger figures to keep their jobs.

"I seen it for myself, if a new director (of a park) gives less figures for tigers than his predecessor, he would be transferred or might even lose his job.

"It's a very uneasy situation," explained Wright, who is now conducting an independent census at Ranthambore, one of India's biggest tiger parks in Rajasthan.

Declining numbers of tigers, India's national animal, has caused grave concern in recent months, enough for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to himself intervene and set up a committee to report on the state of the tiger.

Singh's action came after uproar on disappearance of the tiger from one of the country's biggest natural parks, the Sariska Tiger Reserve, also in Rajasthan.

The committee is headed by vigorous environment campaigner Sunita Narain whose Centre for Science and Environment is India's best-known nature social work body.

Like other experts, Narain blames poaching as the prime reason for the fall in big cat numbers. "We have to control poaching. The indiscriminate killing of the tiger must stop," said Narain, who, as head of the Tiger Task Force, would consult various tiger experts to prepare her report.

Narain also talks of the demand of tiger parts and derivatives in neighbouring China and Myanmar where they are considered medicine and aphrodisiac. In fact, the various derivatives from one tiger could fetch up to $50,000 for its uses in traditional Chinese medicine.

But Wright argues that China is trying to do its best to stop sale of tiger products in its territory. India, she said, is failing to stop its poaching. "The Chinese are making a genuine effort, we are really failing," said Wright.

"Tigers have become a numbers game in India."

The falling numbers of tigers have come as a huge embarrassment for the federal government, especially because it is led by the Congress Party whose late prime minister Indira Gandhi launched Project Tiger to help preserve the country's game parks and natural reserves.

"There has been a lot of internal and external criticism," said a top official at the Environment Ministry, who asked not to be named. "The personal intervention of the prime minister means a lot."

India has around 40 percent of the world's tigers and 28 tiger reserves. Recently, answering a question in Parliament, Minister for Environment and Forests A. Raja said that the situation in other game parks was not as bad as Sariska.

Wright is trying to make sure that's true. "We want to be sure how many tigers there really are. It is very important that we know the exact figures and not some inflated numbers," said Wright.

"I am happy that for the first time in over 30 years, people, everyone is asking intelligent and caring questions. There are two things that attract people to India - Taj Mahal and tigers. Shouldn't we really care for them?"