October 08, 2022

Protecting India’s fishing cats from extinction

topic:	Conservation
located:	India
editor:	Bindu Gopal Rao

The fishing cat is found largely in mangrove and marshland ecosystems and is an exceptional hunter. While its name indicates that it eats fish, it is important to note that it can hunt many species, including ones that are larger than it.

Fishing Cats are the State mascot of West Bengal and the lake ambassadors at Chilika, but are endangered worldwide and hence, there is an urgent need to take measures for their conservation. In India, apart from Odisha and West Bengal, fishing cats have been sighted in Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary (CWS) in Andhra Pradesh in South India.

2021 saw the world’s first survey on fishing cats at Chilika Lake, Asia’s largest brackish water lagoon in Odisha by the Chilika Development Authority in collaboration with The Fishing Cat Project (TFCP). The survey found 176 fishing cats in the region. The second phase of the survey was conducted on the Parikud Side along the coastal part this year.

TFCP is actively working in Odisha and West Bengal to involve people to help in conservation efforts. They have created a fishing cat conservation network in Odisha involving locals, students, researchers, non-government, and government organisations and also have an adaptive management strategy with indigenous fisherfolk communities and relevant government departments.

The Association for Social and Environmental Development has also collaborated with TFCP to develop a management plan for conservation of the species and its habitat in Chilika which won the Lesser-known Species Grant 2021 by The Habitats Trust.

In 2021, the Wildlife Institute of India (WII-Dehradun) Conservation Biologists Radio collared ten fishing cats in the CWS as part of a three-year project to understand how it survives in the wild. Camera traps have been installed in these sanctuaries that also help in estimating the population of the elusive species. Loss of habitat is a key contributor to the dwindling numbers and reports of fishing cats being poisoned have surfaced in the past, which has spurred these kinds of conservation efforts.

In a country where the focus on wildlife largely revolves around tigers, there is an urgent need to conserve both fishing cats and their habitat. These efforts by different organisations are a step in the right direction but this is a time for a more concerted push to save a species that is as rare as it is elusive.

Photo by Frida Lannerström

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