NEWS

Conservation biologists of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, will collaring 10 fishing cats in the Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary (CWS) in Andhra Pradesh

ABOUT FISHING CATS

• Feline with a powerful build and stocky legs.
• Twice the size of a typical house cat and is nocturnal in nature.
• An adept swimmer and enters water frequently to prey on fish.
• Apart from fish, it also preys on frogs, crustaceans, snakes, birds and scavenges on carcasses of larger animals.
• State animal of West Bengal.
• Status
  • On IUCN red list, it is classified as ‘Vulnerable’.
  • On Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) lists, it is placed in Appendix II part of Article IV.
  • In India,it is included in Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and thereby protected from hunting.
• Habitat
  • Wetlands are the favourite habitats
  • Mainly found in the mangrove forests of the Sundarbans, on the foothills of the Himalayas along the Ganga and Brahmaputra river valleys and in the Western Ghats.

ABOUT CORINGA WLS

• Estuary situated in Andhra Pradesh.
• 18 km from the port city of Kakinada, nestling on the deltaic branches of Gouthami and Godavari Rivers at Kakinada Bay.
• Part of the Godavari estuary.
• Flora: It has extensive mangrove and dry deciduous tropical forest. It is the second largest stretch of mangrove forests in India.
• Fauna: It is home to the critically endangered white-backed vulture and the long-billed vulture.
• Possesses a wide variety of birds, because of the feed available in the backwaters of the mangrove forest.
• During low tide, some of the areas are exposed (elevated mud flats) having small fishes, shrimps and mollusks. These attract avifauna for feeding.
• Some critically endangered species like the white-backed vulture and the long-billed vulture are present in the sanctuary.
• The sanctuary has an 18-km long sand pit where olive ridley sea turtles’ nest from January to March every year.