Brown Palm Civet has been recorded only in evergreen forest and in degraded and anthropogenic habitats over former evergreen forest, such as coffee plantations; there are no records from deciduous forests. It inhabits large contiguous forests, high-altitude montane evergreen forest patches or sholas, and small forest fragments amid plantations of tea and coffee; its occurrence is higher in medium-sized forest fragments contiguous with coffee plantations than in forest fragments isolated by non-woody habitat (Rajamani et al. 2002, Mudappa et al. 2007, Kalle et al. 2013). It seems to be most common in altitudes above 1,000 m (Mudappa 2001), but Rajamani et al. (2002) suspected that its distribution may depend more on the structure and floristics of forests, rather than on altitude.

It is largely arboreal (far more so than is the related Common Palm Civet P. hermaphroditus) although descending regularly to the ground, as indicated by success in live-trapping and camera-trapping (Mudappa 1998, Rajamani et al. 2002). It is nocturnal and mainly frugivorous, feeding on at least 50 rainforest tree and liana fruit species, although it does supplement its diet with birds, rodents, and insects (Pocock 1939, Mudappa et al. 2010).

Brown Palm Civet is found in southern India, in the Western Ghats from Achankovil Reserved Forest (Kerala) in the south to the Wai region of Maharashtra (at 18°01′08″N, 73°40′28″E) in the north (Pocock 1939, Corbet and Hill 1992, Mudappa 1998, Rajamani et al. 2002, Bhosale et al. 2013, Chunekar 2014). It has been recorded over the altitude range of 278-2,000 m (Rajamani et al. 2002, Bhosale et al. 2013).

Brown Palm Civet is listed on CITES Appendix III by India, as well as Schedule II part II of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 (Rajamani et al, 2002). It occurs in many protected areas within its distribution (Ashraf et al. 1993, Rajamani et al. 2002). Long-term protection of old-growth rainforests, both large tracts as well as fragments, is important to the conservation of this species (Rajamani et al. 2002). The many recent records from degraded and fragmented forest amid agriculture and human settlement, in areas that have been like this for decades, indicate that, at present, there are no obvious short-term conservation needs.