According To The Preliminary Estimate, 385 Fishing Cats Were Discovered In The Sunderbans

Medium-sized carnivores called fishing cats can be found all over south and southeast 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.

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

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

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 in total.

The fishing cat, as its name suggests, is rough 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.

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 organization of experts working on felines across its range of 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 kilometers, which is a very good density.

News Mania Desk