There is concern about the species status in Southeast Asia where it is very infrequently encountered and believed to be declining (Southeast Asia regional mammal assessment, 2003). There are very few records from camera trapping in Lao (Duckworth pers. comm. 2003) or Cambodia, although there are a sizeable number of confiscated live captive animals there (Duckworth et al. 2005). There have been declines in Thailand (Anak pers. comm. 2003) where it is very rarely encountered (Steinmetz pers. comm. 2003) and was more common in the past (Anak pers. comm. 2003). The fishing cat could not be confirmed in any reserves in Viet Nam during a survey of wildlife officers (Johnsingh and Nguyen 1995). In 2004, the Fishing Cat SSP and the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden funded a field survey by Thai biologists Namfon Boontua and Budsabong Kanchanasaka to locate fishing cats in prime wetland areas in southern Thailand. Four months of camera trapping failed to find any sign of fishing cats despite confirmed presence of numerous other wildlife species. There have also been big declines in Lao PDR (W. Duckworth pers. comm), as well as on the island of Java, where the population, possibly a valid subspecies Prionailurus viverrinus rizophoreus (Sody 1936), may qualify as Critically Endangered (Boeadi pers. comm.; Melisch et al. 1996). In India it has apparently been extirpated from large parts of its range in recent years (S. Mukherjee and J.A. Khan pers. comm. 2007), and it may no longer occur in Pakistan.

Decreasing