Context: Recently, the Odisha forest department has started a two-year conservation project for fishing cats in Bhitarkanika National Park in Kendrapara district.
Key Points

• A new management plan to conserve fishing cats at the national park, including mapping and survey of the cat population was devised.
• A census to find out the exact numbers of the fishing cat — a nocturnal species that is not easy to trace — will be conducted during night-time.
• No exact ecological data on the population of the fishing cat in the park is available as of now.

About Fishing Cat

• The fishing cat is a medium-sized wild cat of South and Southeast Asia.
• It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.
• It is included on CITES Appendix II, and protected by national legislation over most of its range.
• Comes under Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972: Schedule I
• Fishing cat populations are threatened by destruction of wetlands and have declined severely over the last decade, as it lives foremost in the vicinity of wetlands, along rivers, streams, oxbow lakes, in swamps, and mangroves.
• The fishing cat is the state animal of West Bengal.
• The conversion of mangrove forests to commercial aquaculture ponds is a major threat in Andhra Pradesh, where the targeted killing of fishing cats is also prevalent where there is human/animal conflict.

In India, its presence has been documented in:

• Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve, in Dudhwa and Valmiki Tiger Reserves, in Sur Sarovar Bird Sanctuary,
• outside protected areas in West Bengal, in Lothian Island Wildlife Sanctuary in the Sundarbans,
• in Odisha’s Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary and coastal districts outside protected areas,
• in Andhra Pradesh’s Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary, Krishna Wildlife Sanctuary and adjoining reserve forests.

Conservation Efforts

• The Fishing Cat Project, launched in 2010 started raising awareness about the Cat in West Bengal.
• In 2012, the West Bengal government officially declared the Fishing Cat as the State Animal and the Calcutta Zoo has two big enclosures dedicated to them.
• In Odisha, many NGOs and wildlife conservation Societies are involved in Fishing Cat research and conservation work.

About Bhitarkanika National Park

• It  is a national park in northeast Kendrapara district in Odisha in eastern India, and it obtained the status of a Ramsar site in 2002.
• It is surrounded by Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary.
• Gahirmatha Beach and Marine Sanctuary are to the east, separating swamp region and mangroves from the Bay of Bengal.
• The national park and wildlife sanctuary is inundated by the rivers Brahmani, Baitarani, Dhamra, Pathsala.
• It hosts many mangrove species, and is the second largest mangrove ecosystem in India.
• The national park is home to Saltwater crocodile, Indian python, king cobra, black ibis, darters and many other species of flora and fauna.