Major-General Thomas Hardwicke was an English soldier and naturalist who was in India from 1777 to 1823. He collected numerous specimens of natural history and had them painted by Indian artists. From these paintings many new species were described. Several of these species are named after him. On returning to England he collaborated with the zoologist John Edward Gray to publish Illustrations of Indian Zoology (1830–1835).

The Asiatic wildcat, also known as the Asian steppe wildcat and the Indian desert cat, is an African wildcat subspecies that occurs from the eastern Caspian Sea north to Kazakhstan, into western India, western China and southern Mongolia. There is no information on current status or population numbers across the Asiatic wildcat's range as a whole, but populations are thought to be declining.