No abstract

&#Conservation agencies entrusted with recovery of iconic mammals may '# exaggerate population trends without adequate scientific evidence. Recently, (# such populations were termed as 'political populations' in the conservation )# literature. We surmise that political populations emerge when agencies are *# pressured to report abundances at large spatial scales for species that are +# difficult to survey. Indian tiger conservation agencies use an experimental ,# approach called double-sampling using index-calibration models.