Medium-sized carnivores called fishing cats can be found all over south and south-east Asia. They serve as a top predator in many marshes and wetlands, making them significant bioindicators for these environments.

In the Sunderbans, the largest mangrove delta in the world, at least 385 of these cats are said to coexist with tigers, according to the first estimation exercise of fishing cats conducted in West Bengal.

S Jones Justin’s Statement

“Fishing cat is the state animal of West Bengal. While this is the first such estimation of the cat in the state, it is the second estimation of fishing cats in India after Chilika in Odisha,” said S Jones Justin, deputy field director of the Sunderban Tiger Reserve (STR).

Information

Medium-sized carnivores called fishing cats can be found all over south and south-east Asia. They serve as a top predator in many marshes and wetlands, making them significant bioindicators for these ecosystems.

The Indian Wildlife Act, 1973 classifies the fishing cat as a Schedule-I animal, affording it the highest level of protection, while the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has designated it as a globally vulnerable species.

Official Statement

“Tiger estimation, through camera trap exercise, is held every year in the Sunderbans. The fishing cat population inside the tiger reserve was done with the help of data collected during the tiger Census held in 2021. Around 450 pictures of the fishing cats were captured by the cameras installed in the forest. Out of these, at least 385 individuals were identified from their stripe patterns,” said an official.

India and Bangladesh are covered by the Sunderbans. The tiger reserve takes up about 2,584 sq km of the 4,200 sq km Indian portion of the reserve forest. In Bangladesh and India's Sunderbans, there are about 100 tigers total.

“This time, we have estimated the population of fishing cats in the STR portion. We plan to estimate the cat’s population in the entire Sunderbans (Indian area) during the next tiger Census,” said Jones.

The fishing cat, as its name suggests, is roughly twice as big as a conventional house cat and mostly feeds on fish in marshes and marshy areas. They are primarily found in India's Sunderbans mangrove forests, in the valleys of the Ganga and Brahmaputra rivers, and along the country's eastern coast up to Andhra Pradesh.

Tiasa Adhya,s Statement

“Their population is fast dwindling across the world because of habitat loss, accidents and retaliatory killings. The Ganga-Brahmaputra basin in West Bengal and Bangladesh is one of the most suitable places for this cat. This is a very important document as it gives us an estimation of the cat’s population in the tiger reserve. In future, if the cats become locally extinct in some places in West Bengal, the STR population may serve as a source to reintroduce them,”  according to Tiasa Adhya from the IUCN's Species Survival Commission, who has been studying these cats for more than a decade and was involved with the Sunderbans estimation.

Ending Note

When the estimate was made in 2021 and 2022 by the Chilika Development Authority in partnership with the Fishing Cat Project of the Fishing Cat Conservation Alliance, a global organisation of experts working on the felines across its range countries, at least 176 cats were discovered in Chilika. According to estimation experts, Chilika had a fishing cat density of 60 individuals per 100 square kilometres, which is a very good density.