The Fishing cat is a medium-sized, olive brown to grizzled grey coloured Asian feline that comes with distinctive spots and stripes. It loves water and fish and lives around wetlands. The adaptations that nature has bestowed upon it are also apt — a double-layered coat to keep it from getting wet when it is in water, webbed hook-like claws that are not fully retractile which it uses to fish.
The Fishing cat is mainly found in South East Asia — along the Himalayan foothills, Eastern India along West Bengal, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh, and in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Thailand. Though it was a very common wild cat prowling amongst reed beds, swamps and scrubby jungles, a decade back, the cat’s status is a cause for concern now. In the IUCN Red List, which is an international list containing all endangered animals and plants, the Fishing cat has been enlisted as ‘endangered’ 2010 onwards. Even in India, the Fishing cat is a Schedule I animal like the tiger and elephant, which enjoy conservation efforts of the highest accord.
In West Bengal the Fishing cat is the State Mammal. However, few in Bengal would recognise this cat. Some villagers in the interiors might recognise the cat’s picture but only because this ‘notorious’ cat eats up their hens and goats late at night!
In two districts of West Bengal, where I work (Howrah and Hooghly), 44 sq km of wetland has already been destroyed in the last decade due to urbanisation. The cats mainly live inside certain reed beds, which are the dominant vegetation in marshy wetlands. With loss of these reeds, the cats lose their shelter. Thus, they are sighted more often by angry villagers who persecute them to avenge livestock losses. Some traditional tribals also hunt this cat and other small mammals for their livelihood.
But the cats are crucial for maintaining wetland ecosystems. The cats reside at the top of the food chain in a wetland. They feed on molluscs and rodents, the numbers of which if increased, might be harmful for agriculture. They can only exist in wetlands in which the health of water and soil is good, ie, toxicity in water and soil due to pollution is low. Thus if these cats are around, it would mean that the wetland is still in good condition. And why is it important for that to be? Because wetlands store our rainwater, recharge groundwater which is essential for provision of safe drinking water. Not only that, with wetland conservation, comes various other important biodiversity — the wetland birds, insects and snakes.
And a considerable number of these cats live outside the purview of national parks and sanctuaries. Hence, the protection given to them is nil. Yet, the cat’s future does not look bleak to me — all we need is good planning. Since protecting the cats outside protected areas is so important, the community’s tolerance has to be increased by reducing their economic loss.
This can be done by providing strong cages in which the poultry and goats can be kept as has been done in Thailand. In North India, snow leopard conservation is gaining support amongst locals because their livestock is insured. If their cattle are killed, they get compensation. We have to find out if compensation schemes or even subsidies might work here. For the poor tribals we have to introduce alternative sustainable livelihoods. And we have to save the remaining marshy patches. With a little empathy the beautiful and charismatic Fishing cat can definitely survive into the future.
— adhyatiasa@yahoo.com