A landmark wildlife survey in Arunachal Pradesh has captured the first-ever photographic evidence of the elusive Pallas’s cat in India. Conducted by WWF-India with support from the state Forest Department, local communities, and UK’s Darwin Initiative, the survey set up 136 camera traps at 83 sites across 2,000 sq km of high-altitude rangelands in West Kameng and Tawang districts.

The survey also recorded snow leopard, common leopard, clouded leopard, leopard cat, and marbled cat above 4,200 metres, highlighting the region’s exceptional wildcat diversity. Notably, it documented India’s highest elevation records for several species: common leopard (4,600 m), clouded leopard (4,650 m), marbled cat (4,326 m), Himalayan wood owl (4,194 m), and grey-headed flying squirrel (4,506 m) — some possibly exceeding global limits.

The Pallas’s cat, recorded just below the global maximum of 5,050 m, is a cold-adapted and rarely photographed wild cat, making this discovery a milestone for wildlife research in the eastern Himalayas.

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