Tiasa Adhya Delivers a Talk on Fishing Cat Conservation at the GTF-UNDP World Wetland Day Webinar

02 February 2024

In commemoration of World Wetland Day, the Global Tiger Forum and the UNDP-GEF programme organized an online webinar dedicated to the fishing cat, the apex predator of this ecosystem, on 02 February, 2024.

The webinar featured various talks by scientists and conservationists focused on protecting this elusive felid across diverse landscapes. Tiasa Adhya, our Joint Secretary and Director of Ecology and Conservation Programs, presented a talk titled, ‘Fish-Fishermen-Fishing Cats: Visualising the Persistence of a Rich Socio-Ecological System in Chilika’.

HEAL’s Director of Ecology and Conservation Program, Tiasa Adhya presenting her work in the webinar

Tiasa’s presentation delved into the initiatives devised by her team at The Fishing Cat Project (TFCP), that connect fishing cat conservation to the preservation of wetland health and the well-being of wetland-dependent communities in Chilika. This wetland is a Ramsar site and is Asia’s largest freshwater lagoon.

Traditionally, farmers in Chilika have been engaged in the organic cultivation of ‘red rice,’ a flood-tolerant rice variety that grows up to a height of 4-6 feet, providing crucial seasonal habitat for the fishing cat. However, low economic returns compel farmers to abandon this ‘wise-use’ practice and instead lease their land for aquaculture farming, which degrades and pollutes Chilika’s waters.

The dignitaries invited to speak at the World Wetland Day webinar organized jointly by the Global Tiger Forum and UNDP-GEF programme

The Chilika Red Rice pilot project, launched by TFCP in collaboration with HEAL on World Wetland Day, aims to financially support marginalized farmers in Chilika to continue cultivating red rice. This project has a dual impact – fishing cats receive seasonal refuge, and biological and chemical markers of wetland health show improvement.

In this manner, the project envisions fishing cat conservation as a seamless integration of wetland health recovery, community upliftment, and species conservation.

You can know more about the Chilika Red Rice Project at this link: healearth.in/chilika-red-rice

To watch the webinar, visit this link: https://www.youtube.com/live/7_q1VrB3yTs?si=Gew0tVkH3y5oAMfr