In a landmark wildlife discovery, the elusive Pallas’s Cat has been documented for the first time in Arunachal Pradesh during an extensive high-altitude survey jointly conducted by the Department of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Government of Arunachal Pradesh and WWF-India. It not only produced the first photographic record of Pallas’s Cat in the state, but also revealed the presence of five other wild cats — snow leopard, common leopard, clouded leopard, leopard cat, and marbled cat — at elevations above 4,200 metres. The findings mark a significant extension of the known range of Pallas’s Cat in the Eastern Himalaya, adding to previous records from Sikkim, Bhutan, and eastern Nepal. “The discovery of Pallas’s Cat in Arunachal Pradesh at nearly 5,000 metres is a powerful reminder of how little we know about the high Himalayas,” said Dr. Rishi Kumar Sharma, Head – Science and Conservation, Himalayas Programme, WWF-India. “These findings reaffirm Arunachal Pradesh’s status as a global biodiversity hotspot,” said Shri Ngilyang Tam, PCCF & CWLW (Wildlife and Biodiversity).