Elusive Pallas’s cat slowly reveals its presence across Indian Himalaya
New Delhi: It is easy to mistake the Pallas’s cat for an unusually fluffy domestic cat. Its round face, low-set ears, short legs and perpetually unimpressed expression make it look almost cartoonish.
But the animal known scientifically as Otocolobus manul is very much a wild cat, built for some of the harshest landscapes in Asia.
In India, finding one is an altogether different story. The Pallas’s cat is among the country’s least-known small felids, living largely out of sight across the high-altitude Trans-Himalaya. Unlike the snow leopard, it rarely announces its presence. It is small, solitary, well camouflaged and occurs at low densities, making even camera-trap photographs valuable.
The species was first reported from India in Ladakh, with records from the upper Indus Valley dating back to 1991. Since then, scattered observations have established its presence across parts of the Indian Himalaya.
In September 2007, a solitary Pallas’s cat was observed on the Tso Lhamo Plateau in North Sikkim at about 5,073 metres — the first confirmed record in the state.
In Uttarakhand, researchers in the Nelang Valley of Gangotri National Park recorded the animal at around 4,800 metres in 2019, providing the first record from the state.
More recently, in Upper Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh, researchers placed 56 camera traps between March and May 2024 as part of snow leopard estimation. The cameras unexpectedly recorded Pallas’s cats at three sites in Hangrang Valley between 3,900 and 4,100 metres — the first photographic evidence in Himachal Pradesh.
And between July and September 2024, WWF-India and the Arunachal Pradesh Forest Department deployed 136 camera traps across 83 high-altitude sites covering roughly 2,000 sq km between West Kameng and Tawang. One camera captured a Pallas’s cat at approximately 4,992 metres — the first photographic evidence in Arunachal Pradesh.
In 2026, researchers also documented the first record in Karakoram Wildlife Sanctuary in northern Ladakh using genetic analysis of a scat sample.
The cat favours cold, dry and open terrain — alpine grasslands, rocky slopes and semi-desert steppe — and uses rock crevices for shelter. Its exceptionally dense fur helps it survive extreme temperature fluctuations.
An ambush hunter feeding largely on rodents, its survival depends on the health of Himalayan grasslands, which face threats from habitat fragmentation, livestock pressure, mining and infrastructure development.
