Prisoner Of Contradictions

India's only wetland cat is under multiple threats.

- Tiasa Adhya

FISHING CAT is a symbolic species of floodplains, deltas and coastal wetlands of South and Southeast Asia. They have a patchy distribution from Sind in Pakistan to Cambodia. The South Asian countries of India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka hold the core of the global Fishing Cat population. In India, it is largely restricted to the floodplains of Ganga, Yamuna, Brahmaputra, Sundarbans Delta and smaller coastal wetlands along the Bay of Bengal formed by Mahanadi, Godavari and Krishna rivers. As these areas are biologically productive, they have attracted human civilisation for colonisation and food production and this has put the Fishing Cat under threat.

Development: the biggest threat