Breeding programme for fishing cats to start soon

Kolkata: The Alipore Zoological Gardens will soon start a conservation and breeding programme for the population of the species.

"The fishing cat is the state animal of Bengal. But, its population is threatened as the wetlands in the state have depleted severely over the last decade. So, we have decided to increase the population of the animal by taking up conservation and breeding programme measures. Once we augment their population, we will release them into the wild," Asis Kumar Samanta, director of Alipore Zoo, said.

The existing population of fishing cats, which is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, is twelve in the zoo.

Fishing cat, which is known as 'Baghrol' in Bengali, is included in Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. Killing a fishing cat can lead to imprisonment for three to seven years and/or invite a fine up to Rs 30,000.

A full-grown fishing cat is twice the size of a house cat—weighing over 15kg — and has blotches and stripes on its body. Many mistake it for a leopard or a tiger cub.

The animal thrives mostly on fishes and lives foremost in the vicinity of wetlands, along rivers, streams, oxbow lakes, in swamps and mangroves.

"The state government in the past few years has taken some steps in conservation of wetlands but there have been incidents when people have netted these animals and killed them," said a senior Alipore Zoo official.

According to the official, people still lack awareness about this vulnerable animal species, which is endangered.

"The Fishing Cat barely attacks human beings," the senior zoo official explained.

The regular awareness programmes on fishing cats conducted by some NGOs have been halted amid the COVID-19 pandemic situation and some incidents of beating the animal to death have been reported from Howrah, Hooghly and South 24-Parganas.