In a sprawling tiger reserve in northeastern India, once upon a time poachers have become the tiger's best friend.

The 500-sq-km Manas national park in western Assam was at one time a haven for militants as well as poachers who hunted tigers, rhinos and elephants. Today the tiger is roaring again at the park. And the elephants too have got a new lease of life.

Not long ago, Budheswar Boro roamed the grasslands hunting wildlife at ease. He admits he has killed scores of animals, including rhinos, elephants and a tiger.

A much feared poacher, Boro's life has since been transformed. He still roams the park with a gun, but for a cause.

"I now patrol the park looking for poachers. I feel sad when I look back at my past when I hunted animals," Boro told IANS with a sense of remorse. "Today, the park is free from poachers and militants."

Like Boro, there are a dozen more poachers who guard the park in their changed role as custodians of wildlife.

It became possible after the park authorities launched a drive to woo poachers with financial incentives.

The larger 2,837 sq km tiger reserve - encompassing the Manas national park - was plundered by tribal Bodo guerrillas for almost a decade.

This prompted Unesco to list Manas as a "World Heritage Site in Danger".

"From the brink of collapse to a situation when the animals can breathe easy, Manas is on a comeback trail with a marked improvement in the overall situation during the past one year," says a park warden.

Manas is good news for India where the tiger population - estimated to be over 3,000 - has dwindled rapidly in the last few years.

Some of the country's renowned sanctuaries - in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh - have hardly reported any sightings of the big cat in the last one year, prompting the government to re-assess the much-hyped Project Tiger conservation programme.

Since it was declared a sanctuary in 1928, experts have identified over 300 wildlife species in Manas, bordering the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan.

The park is home to 22 of the 41 endangered species.

In the past decade, up to 200 animals were slaughtered inside Manas, either by militants for food or by organised poaching gangs, says a park official.

According to an Assam police official, "the sanctuary was in real danger with Bodo militants making forays into Assam from their bases inside Bhutan through the park".

Park authorities were forced to shut down two forest camps after militants killed 15 park rangers since trouble first broke out in the early 1990s. The sanctuary was later closed for visitors.

Things started looking up with the Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT), a rebel group, signing a peace pact with the central government.

The BLT, whose members reportedly plundered Manas in tandem with other militant groups, have turned out to be the saviours of the very animals they once hunted.