Counting real tigers
The first attempt at estimating India's tiger population using statistically valid techniques shows that the numbers of the big cat are depressingly low. The recently released report of the National Tiger Conservation Authority and Wildlife Institute of India, titled "Status of Tigers, Co-predators and Prey in India,' estimates that there are 1,411 tigers in six landscape complexes. These are the Shivalik-Gangetic Plains; the Central Indian Landscape Comp lex; the Eastern Ghats; the Western Ghats; the North-Eastern Hills and Brahmaputra Plains; and the Sunderbans.