Community Cats of Chivla Beach, Malvan, India
By Rudolph Furtado from India
I had been on 3 day Scuba/Snorkel holiday to Malvan town about 514 Kms from Mumbai. Malvan is famous for the island fort called “Sindhudurg Fort” built by the Maratha King Shivaji.
Malvan is just 2 hours drive from Goa a well known beach resort among Western tourists visiting India. We stayed at a beach resort on Chivla Beach and I came across a few beach cats that live on the fish brought in by the canoe fishermen.
These cats are not very tame and afraid of strangers. Here are a few photos of the cats and the beach. The black & white cat is actually eating a freshly caught fish. The brown cat is a majestic tomcat. A photo of the normal small fish caught by these 2-men paddle canoe boats is in the photo.
This is where it is:
These are the photographs he refers to:
I realize that “P.O.C” is more focused on cats of Europe and U.S.A and hence i always try to project some interesting “cat Observations” from India.”P.O.C” was indirectly instrumental in India having its first “Cat Club” and “Cat show” in Bangalore. Thanks to Mr Michael.Broad for his encouragement and introduction to “T.I.C.A” that i personally undertook some correspondence amongst cat groups in India, creating awareness to start a “Cat Club in India”. This finally did result in India having its first cat club and cat show in Bangalore ,although it is not affiliated to “T.I.C.A” but to the German cat federation. These cats shown in these photos could be surviving on the fish titbits as well as waste food of the isolated village houses. The brown tomcat was our photographed in the resort and definitely living on the resort leftovers besides fish.Strangely, the cats and dogs in this small fishing village exist harmoniously and the cat shown on the canoe boat was literally sharing its fish morsels with a beach dog. All the cats on the beach seemed healthy although wary of strangers.
I really liked your photographs and the story. I get a clear feeling as to what it is like for community beach cats. Not too bad a life for a cat. Better than being in the middle of Mumbai it seems.
I hope the slide show works on your computer. It should do. If it does not please tell me. Thanks again Rudolph for showing us in the West what life is like in the East.
Yes PoC is unique in every way 🙂
I too enjoyed seeing the pictures, thank you for sharing them 🙂
I hope PoC is unique in that we try and involve all cats from all places of the world. I don’t want to leave anyone out. Often the cats in far flung places are more in need of some publicity than domestic cats in the West.
Rudolph,
Thanks for the report and the pictures. I too (as Michael said) am interested in seeing pictures and reports from cats around the world.
The beach looks beautiful. The cats do indeed look wild, particularly the one on the boat. I am always interested in seeing pictures of cats from places other than the UK and USA. If they live of raw fish all the time it probably is not that good for their health.
Thanks for reporting back from India. I hope you had a nice stay.
Michael,
Given my experiences in Morocco, and especially Essaouira (seaport), I would have to add that even though raw fish might not be an ideal diet, it is way better to have a regular source of food than no food at all. I can’t remember at present what vitamin cats lack if they eat fish only, or how long it takes for this deficiency to manifest, though I do remember you discussing it. My recollection, correct me if I am wrong, that it takes a number of years for this deficiency to have an obvious effect on the cat. Possibly way longer than the usual life span of these beach cats.
Very good point VG. I totally agree that they survive quite nicely on raw fish and may supplement it with the odd rodent!
Ah, yes, I bet they do eat rodents, but not so easy to capture photographically.
I guess not because they are moving and the fish are dead 😉
LOL! And rodents are creatures of the night.