Confirming government information wrong that there are no tigers in the wild in Tripura, villagers in the state found two tiger cubs in a forest, officials said on Saturday. "When villagers went to a forest on Friday to collect wood at Harina in southern Tripura, 140 km south of here, they found the two tiger cubs and later handed them over to forest officials," a forest department official told reporters.

Quoting the villagers, the official said : "A tigress was protecting her cubs under a tree. Seeing the villagers she ran away leaving the cubs."

The cubs are believed to be 13 to 15 days old.

The forest official said that as per the latest (in 2002) tiger census there are no tigers in the northeastern state that borders the Chittagong hill tracts (CHT) of southeast Bangladesh.

The official said they would hand over the cubs to the Sepahijala Zoo in western Tripura. The Sepahijala Zoo was categorized by the Central Zoo Authority as one of the 22 large zoos in India.

The Sepahijala sanctuary and zoo have more than 46 species of wild animals kept for their conservation, protection and breeding.

The sanctuary has also been tagged as the national park for clouded leopards.