Bhitarkanika losing its spots

KENDRAPARA: The rivers and creeks of Bhitarkanika National Park might be popular as the home of the gigantic salt-water crocodiles, spotted dear, boars, sambars and monitors, etc, but it is fast losing one of its most elegant species, the leopard cat.

The elusive small cat species is vanishing from the country’s second largest mangrove forest, so much so that a sighting brings tremendous joy and sense of achievement among the tourists and the forest officials.
The leopard cat (prionailurus bengalensis) was once found in abundance in the forest but has come to a state of near extinction in the recent years.

In 2018 mammal census, only two leopard cats were sighted in Bhitarkanika. “Though we have yet to start any specific programme for the conservation of the cats, they are included in the larger plan of protecting all species native to the forest. The cat is also protected under Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972,” DFO Bikash Ranjan Dash said.

The leopard cat is looks like a baby leopard and is about the size of a domestic cat. The nocturnal hunting animal is usually hard to spot but is now threatened by habitat loss and poaching.  Satabhaya, Bagapatia and other water bodies within the park were the home of leopard cats in the past but the  prawn mafia have destroyed the ecology of these seaside areas.

“The leopard cats used to roam in these areas a decade back.  But they are no longer to be seen due to largescale the denudation of mangrove forest and  destruction of wetlands by prawn farms.  The Forest department should  prepare a status report of the species in Bhitarkanika,”  Hemanta Rout, the secretary of Gahirmatha Marine Turtles and Mangrove Conservation Society, demanded.