In presence of Panchagarh forest officials and local elites, the cats were returned back to their mother around 7:30am, according to district forest office sources.

Locals said earlier tea garden workers of Kazi and Kazi Tea Estate of Tetulia in Panchagarh noticed four fishing cat cubs at the estate and caught three of them alive. One died under the foot of a worker.

Sarder Shahajan Siraj and Ataur Rahman of the tea estate fed the cubs milk during their stay there.

Mokbul Hossain, an employee of the estate, noticed the mother of the cubs roaming around Sunday afternoon. "The mother of the cubs called for them the whole night at the garden," he told The Daily Star.

MA Rashid, a Panchagarh forest official, said the 15-day-old cubs appear to be a rare fishing cat breed and they rarely survive in captivity.

On March 16 two other fishing cat cubs were captured at Dangirhat of the upazila but they died as the forest department and the district livestock department failed to take any initiative to save them.