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. The estimate confirms the assessment that tiger populations are far lower than past official counts. Rather than persist with the fiction of impressive absolute counts of the cats based mainly on the pugmark method, the census adopted scientific sampling techniques such as mark-recapture and distance sampling of tigers. As a result, conservation efforts can be founded on a more credible statistical base and future assessments may reflect gains or losses more accurately. The Tiger Conservation Authority now needs to consolidate the effort by welcoming all independent scientific endeavours as part of the official sampling programme. Realistic assessments of the state of the tiger will help Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the State governments launch a major effort to strengthen the integrity of national parks and designated reserves. If long-term conservation is the goal, the creation of inviolate areas devoid of human presence is vital. As a first step, Dr Singh identified last year the relocation of 270 villages in core areas of sanctuaries as a priority task. Where voluntary relocation has succeeded, tiger numbers are healthier. A good example of voluntary and humane relocation is Nagarahole in the Western Ghats, where independent researchers and the Karnataka government have worked together. Recent estimates suggest that these forests host the single largest population of tigers in the Nagarahole-Mudumalai-Bandipur-Wayanad landscape unit. Other landscapes present a variety of challenges. The Tiger Conservation Authority must tackle armed insurgency in the Eastern Ghats and parts of central India, widespread unsustainable resource extraction, and alarming levels of poaching of tigers and their prey. Resources are not a constraint and, among other things, there is international support to save the last of the major wild tiger populations found anywhere. What the conservation agenda needs most is unequivocal political commitment.