A rare fishing cat was seen in Chhiladharchar village in the Bhanga municipality, Faridpur. A forest department team from Faridpur tried from the afternoon until night on Monday (11 March) to rescue it, but failed to catch it.

From morning until night on Monday, crowds of curious people gathered to see the fishing cat. The animal was caught, but the rope suddenly slipped from its neck and it climbed about 60 feet further up the tree. The forest department team tried from afternoon until night before finally returning.

According to local sources, a medium-sized fishing cat with spotted, striped markings strayed from its haunt into the village. Some dogs chased it, and with nowhere to go it took refuge in a rain tree about 80 feet tall. Local people, police, the upazila parishad and the Faridpur district forest department all tried and failed to catch it. On receiving the news, a forest department team from Faridpur arrived in the afternoon and tried to rescue it, but had failed by evening. Meanwhile, with the crowd and the rescuers' efforts, the cat climbed higher still.

After 9.30pm, a team from Animal Rescuers Bangladesh (ARB) of Dhaka tried for about an hour and a half to rescue the cat at the scene, but could not.

Local businessman Samrat Mollah said that on Monday morning local people passing along the road saw the fishing cat about 40 feet up a rain tree in the garden of Advocate Asaduzzaman Rana in Chhiladharchar village. As word spread, curious people crowded in to catch a glimpse of it.

Limon, a member of ARB, said: "After trying for about an hour and a half we brought the fishing cat down, but it ran away. From what I saw, it was quite big."

Sub-inspector (SI) Khalid Hasan of Bhanga police station said police went to the scene on receiving the news, but in the end the cat could not be rescued from anywhere. Police were working at the scene to control the crowd and maintain law and order, he said.

Bhanga upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) ABM Kudrat E Khuda said that on receiving the news, Bhanga fire service and Bhanga police station were informed and the police went to the scene. Because the fire service has some restrictions on rescuing such animals, the forest department's help was sought.

Faruk Sardar, assistant forest officer in Bhanga, said a team from Faridpur went to rescue the fishing cat. After it was caught, the rope suddenly slipped from its neck and it climbed about 60 feet higher up the tree. "In that situation, we left after evening," he said.

Zahidul Islam, a forest guard at the Faridpur forest department's range office, said: "This is a rare species, the fishing cat. We first climbed the tree to try to catch it. Then it climbed to a height of about 60 feet in the tree. We tried, but could not catch it from so high up."

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.