Fishing Cat (Prionailurus viverrinus)

Mohamed bin Zayed Species project number 162513804

Prioritizing areas for Fishing Cat conservation along the Indian Eastern coast - lower Ganges basin to Chilika Lake (Ramsar Site)

The overall objective of the project is to prioritize areas for Fishing Cat conservation in a landscape which offers limited permeability to it. It is essential to identify landscape features that facilitate connectivity. These could depend on geological, morphological, hydrologic, ecological and anthropogenic factors. Thus, a Fishing Cat distribution map in Eastern India, incorporating such landscape features and factors that influence them will be created. Empirical data will be collected from interview surveys, camera trapping and assigning species identification to scats. These will be analyzed to generate the map. The second map will help select landscape features for prioritizing research and conservation attention. Additionally, it will help to locate pinch points without which the landscape could lose its functional connectivity. Chilika lagoon (Ramsar Site) shares landscape features that could together serve as such a pinch point without which Fishing Cat might lose connectivity to South Indian populations. Prioritizing such areas are crucial especially if they lie in the buffer. Fourth, we will prepare a detailed report of the current threats to Fishing Cat and its habitat in these areas which will help give inputs to a Fishing Cat Action Plan being prepared by the Fishing Cat Working Group (www.fishing-cat.wild-cat.org).