KAKINADA: A study on fishing cats and other mammals in the Godavari delta region was conducted for the first time by the wildlife wing of Forest Department, said District Collector Kartikeya Misra.He released a brochure on fishing cats and other mammals at the Collectorate here on Monday.
Speaking on the occasion, the Collector said that the Godavari delta supports one of the largest protected mangroves in the country, which has considerable fishing cat population and other animal species. The wildlife wing had taken an initiative to monitor fishing cats and other animal species in the delta region to protect ecology. A camera trapping exercise was conducted across the region in two phases from June to August 2018, starting from Coringa wildlife sanctuary, which also covered the adjoining mangroves to identify fishing cats and other animal species.
High quality DSLR cameras were used at 97 locations in the region as part of the exercise and six mammalian species, including fishing cat, golden jackal, rhesus macaque, smooth coated otter, jungle cat and mongoose, were identified.
The study revealed that the Godavari delta region has a population of about 115 fishing cats, which is the largest viable population of the animal species in the country. Conservation of fishing cats and other endangered species would be taken up in a big way by involving all the stakeholders, the Collector said.
DFO (Wildlife) Anant Shankar, Joint Collector Ch Sathibabu, DRO MV Govindarajulu and other officials were also present on the occasion.