1411 - where the hell this figure came from?

1411 - It's a catchy number, but is not my ATM PIN. As per the widely advertised #SaveOurTigers campaign, this is the number of tigers left in India. I'm sure we all must have initially wondered, how did we arrive at this number but later convinced ourselves that the government must have done a proper counting and published the figure somewhere. Our Discovery - Wild and NatGeo fed minds led us believe that Aircel or Indian Govt. might have put radio tracking devices and hence counted the striped beauty.

Wonder of wonders, it's not true. The number is actually nothing more than a pure guesstimate. Here is formula used to arrive at this figure:

2007 Tiger Census Report: Number of tigers - Max=1650; Min=1150. Take an average, yes a simple statistical average; result=1400; Adding an optimistic growth of around 4 tigers per year they put forward the figure of 1411, conveniently ignoring more than 100 deaths reported since that report.

1411 is just an inflated figure and an exaggeration. The actual number is much lower. We should either act now saving them OR start looking for our next National Animal. May be a goat, to show solidarity to the national animal of our neighbors.