Panaji, Nov 24 - The controversy over the poaching of a Royal Bengal tiger in Goa earlier this year has taken a fresh twist with central government officially admitting that the animal was killed, contrary to the stand of the state forest department.

Citing information compiled by the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), a release of the central government's environment and forest ministry, published on the press information bureau (PIB) website, said a tiger was indeed killed in Goa, along with other 58 tigers poached in India till Nov 13, 2009.

The press release says the data was part of a written reply tabled Monday in the Rajya Sabha by Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh.

The state forest department, especially the Chief Conservator of Forests Shashi Kumar had repeatedly denied the reports of a tiger being poached in Goa, making wildlife activists sceptical of the department's role in investigating the incident.

Wildlife activist Rajendra Kerkar, who first brought the February tiger poaching case in the Mhadei wildlife sanctuary to light through a newspaper article and accompanying photographs of the slain animal, alleged that Kumar was under pressure from several politicians to cover up the incident.

"The chief conservator of forests Dr Shashi Kumar is under tremendous pressure to cover up the tiger poaching incident," Kerkar told IANS, adding that several politicians who owned legitimate mines in the area and who ran illegal mining operations within the reserve forest itself, were responsible for the attempted cover up.

"Mere acknowledgement of a resident tiger is very, very significant to Goa. The forest department has always been trying to scuttle efforts made by the wildlife enthusiasts to establish the presence of a tiger here. But this is different. A poached tiger makes it an extremely sensitive situation," he said.

Meanwhile, the forest department has charged Kerkar with abetment in the poaching case for not disclosing the name of the person who took photographs of the slain animal.

Shashi Kumar maintains that it was difficult to verify the tiger poaching incident. "Even the preliminary forensic examination of samples collected by my officers from the place where the tiger was allegedly killed shows that the dead animal was not a tiger," Kumar said.

The preliminary report was not released to the media. (IANS)