Large Indian Civet uses a wide variety of wooded habitats, both evergreen and deciduous, and primary and degraded. It has been recorded in primary forest (both evergreen and deciduous), secondary and degraded forest, scrubland and plantations (including those of tea) (Duckworth 1997, Azlan 2003, Jennings and Veron 2011, Choudhury 2013, Chutipong et al. 2014). In the Sundarbans, Bangladesh, it uses mangroves as well as moist deciduous forest and mixed bamboo vegetation (Hasan Rahman pers. comm. 2014) and there are records from Melaleuca cajupti-dominated peat swamp forest in Viet Nam (Nguyen et al. 2004). It perhaps has even wider habitat use, Lekagul and McNeely (1977) indicated it was common around human settlements, and while hunting is probably too heavy in most of South-east Asia for this now to be so, recently one was found in a city park of Dhaka, Bangladesh (Hasan Rahman pers. comm. 2014). There are several recent records in Nepal from the settled Kathmandu valley (Ghimirey and Acharya 2014), but all locations are connected to, or no more than 1-2, maximum 3, km from, large tracts of native forest, so plausibly involve roaming forest-based animals; there is no evidence of animals living independent of forest there (Y. Ghimirey pers. comm. 2014). Four animals radio-tracked by Simcharoen et al. (1999) in the Khao Nang Rum area of Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary, Thailand (one adult male, two adult females and one sub-adult female) had home-ranges of 8.8, 3.6, 6.9 and 2.7 km², respectively. These animals were tracked for 13, 14, 8 and 3 months, respectively, and used evergreen forest much less than deciduous forest: 10%, 49%, 9% and 13%, respectively. Rabinowitz (1991) tracked one animal in the same area for seven months, which used evergreen forests in larger proportion (62%) than deciduous forests (mixed deciduous and dry dipterocarp). In sum, individual Large Indian Civets seem to vary considerably in habitat use.

It has been recorded up to 2,420 m in Nepal (Appel et al. 2013), to 3,080 m in India (Khatiwara and Srivastava 2014), but in South-east Asia perhaps only to at least 1,800 m (Jennings and Veron 2011).

It is solitary and nocturnal although there are occasional day-time records of active animals (e.g. Than Zaw et al. 2008, Gray et al. 2014b) and it is usually active on the ground (Lekagul and McNeely 1977, Duckworth 1997). Its diet consists of a wide range of animals, including fish, birds, lizards, frogs, insects, scorpions (and other arthropods), and crabs, as well as poultry and rubbish (Lekagul and McNeely 1977). It is believed to breed throughout the year, with two litters per year, and two to four young per litter (Lekagul and McNeely 1977).

Large Indian Civet occurs across the southern Himalaya Terai from the Nandhour region, India, east through Nepal and Bhutan, locally in southern China, and widely in Bangladesh (north-east, south-east, middle and Sundarbans), North-east India and mainland South-east Asia including peninsular Malaysia (Duckworth 1997, Azlan 2003, Kawanishi and Sunquist 2004, Than Zaw et al. 2008, Feeroz et al. 2011, 2012, Jennings and Veron 2011, Bista et al. 2012, Choudhury 2013, Tempa et al. 2013, Chutipong et al. 2014, Ghimirey and Acharya 2014, Gray et al. 2014a, Rahman and McCarthy 2014, Willcox et al. 2014: Table SOM3). In China, it has been recorded from the provinces of Anhui, Shaanxi, Chongqing, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Xizang, Guangxi, Gunagdong, Hainan, Fujian, Zhejang, and Jiangsu (Wang 2003), but is perhaps now extirpated from some or even most of these (e.g., Lau et al. 2010) although it still occurs at least locally in the country (e.g., Wen et al. 2014). Singapore is also typically included in the range, and animals have certainly occurred in a wild state there, but Chua et al. (2012) queried, given historical statements of large trade in the species into Singapore in the past, whether it is native to the island. It has been introduced to the Andaman Islands, India (Lever 1985).

Ghimirey and Acharya (2014) highlighted the confusing and inconsistent treatment of this species's western range limit in various sources. A specimen-based claim from west of the known global distribution, from Himachal Pradesh, India (Archana et al. 2000) in fact refers to a palm civet (Bista et al. 2012).

It occurs down to sea-level in some areas, and to 2,420 m in Nepal (Appel et al. 2013) and to 3,080 m in India (Khatiwara and Srivastava 2014).

This species is totally protected in Malaysia under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 (Azlan 2003) and in Bangladesh under the Wildlife Conservation and Security Act 2012 (Hasan Rahman pers. comm. 2014). It is protected in at least Thailand (Chutipong et al. 2014), Viet Nam and Myanmar (GMA Small Carnivore Workshop 2006). China listed it as ‘Endangered’ under criteria A2acd, and it is a Category II protected State species under the China Wildlife Protection Law (1988), because of trapping for food and scent glands (Li et al. 2000). The population of India is listed on CITES Appendix III. It is found in very many protected areas (e.g., Duckworth 1997, Azlan, 2003, Kawanishi and Sunquist, 2004, Than Zaw et al. 2008, Bista et al. 2012, Choudhury 2013, Tempa et al. 2013, Chutipong et al. 2014, Ghimirey and Acharya 2014, Gray et al. 2014a,b, Khatiwara and Srivastava 2014, Willcox et al. 2014: Table SOM3, Hasan Rahman pers. comm. 2014). There are some differences between countries in their effectiveness at reducing hunting within protected areas. Those countries which have greater commitment to this have healthier populations of Large Indian Civet whereas some of the South-east Asian countries are losing the species within many of their protected areas (e.g., Couldrat et al. 2014, Chutipong et al. 2014). In the interests of maintaining the species's ancestral range, attention is needed to reducing trade-driven hunting across Lao PDR, Viet Nam and, increasingly, Cambodia.