India, Aug. 24 -- It is with more than a modicum of despair that we must temper the news of a sensational discovery. An adult specimen of the Fishing cat (FC) was rescued from the Ambala-Haridwar highway near Mullana on Friday morning at around 5.15 am. The cat had been hit by a vehicle and was paralysed. The specimen was rescued by the Haryana wildlife department and the NGO, Vande Matram Dal, after a call was placed to the police emergency helpline 112 by a passerby. The road-hit cat constituted the first record of the FC for Haryana. There are, otherwise, no records of this species from Himachal Pradesh and Jammu Kashmir & Ladakh, and just the bare minimum from Punjab. The species has been declared as "vulnerable" by the IUCN. All too often, wild creatures crossing the densening mesh of highways and roads get struck by vehicles resulting in fatalities and wounds. Dozens of FCs die in roadkills in West Bengal and 300 are estimated to have perished in thelast decade in Sri Lanka. But that apart, small cat specialists were elated at the Mullana find. "I have never come across a FC in all my years of work. It is good news as it adds to the Small Cats group in the north," associate professor Rajiv Kalsi, who has camera-trapped small cats at the Kalesar National Park and found the rare Leopard cat there, told this writer. Co-founder of the Fishing Cat Project, Tiasa Adhya, told this writer: "I can confirm from the Mullana photographs that it is indeed a FC. However, news carried in the media in May 2025 that three kittens of the FC were found in Hoshiarpur district of Punjab was incorrect. Dr Shomita Mukherjee, a leading small cat specialist, confirmed from photographs that the Hoshiarpur kittens were of the Jungle cat, which sport white cheeks as an identification mark," Adhya told this writer. With the Hoshiarpur record being crossed out, the FC's known presence in the four northern states falls in the realm of the 'rarest of the rare'. Professor Gurpartap Singh, who thumbed historical records for an esoteric assessment ofthe species presence in north India, told this writer: "The Mullana record has the presence of water not too far awayfrom that place. It is possible that the FC was always there but it was not discovered earlier due to its elusive habits. From Punjab, the IUCN quotes the records of the FC as obtained by the WWF-India in the guise of camera traps from Harike sanctuary and sightings from the Beas Conservation Reserve. Swedish birder Per Undeland sighted a FC in the Harike marshes in the mid-1990s." The FC, which can grow to a size of 16 kg, is adapted to hunting in wetlands. It has a short, stout tail deployed as a rudder to steer in water. "The cat's feet are partially webbed and has claws that jut out to catch fish. Small ears fold when in water to curb moisture ingress. The threat to wetlands in India affects the future of this species. The cat is a representative, an ambassador of the well-being of our wetlands," said Adhya. The FC not only eats fish and molluscs but catches land prey such as birds, snakes and rodents. It has adapted to cities, such as in Colombo, where it hunts in Koi fish ponds. In Bangladesh, FCs have been observed climbing trees 26-feet-high to prey on bird nests....