The mystery of the missing tigers is a sorry tale of official incompetence and corruption in India.

Just as Captain Renault was “shocked, quite shocked” to find gambling in Casablanca, so Indian forest officials and state governments have been scandalised at news that there is not a single tiger left in one of the country's main wildlife reserves. Over the last six months, not one pug mark - or tiger paw print - has been found of the 24 tigers supposed to inhabit the 880 square kilometre Sariska reserve in Rajasthan.