Pygmy hogs released in Manas National Park

• Eighteen captive-bred pygmy hogs were released in western Assam’s Manas National Park and Tiger Reserve.
• It was the fourth such exercise undertaken under the Pygmy Hog Conservation Programme (PHCP) annually since 2020, helping up the total number released at the park to 54.
• The PHCP target is to reintroduce 60 pygmy hogs in Manas, its historical habitat, by 2025.

ABOUT PYGMY HOG (PORCULA SALVANIA)

• It is the smallest and rarest pig on earth.
• Once thriving across the alluvial grasslands along the southern edge of the Himalayas, the pygmy hog was thought to be extinct in the 1970s.
• Backed by the United Kingdom-based Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, the PHCP was started near Guwahati in 1996 with two males and two females captured from the Bansbari Range of Manas National Park.
  • The reintroduction of the captive-bred hogs to the wild began in 2008.
• Standing about 25 cm from the ground and weighing 6-9 kg, it lives in small groups of up to eight individuals and builds thatch nests rather than farrow like other pigs.
  • It is one of the very few mammals that build its own home, or nest, complete with a ‘roof’.
• It is an indicator species as its presence reflects the health of its primary habitat, tall and wet grasslands.
• It prefers undisturbed patches of grassland
• Threats include habitat (grassland) loss and degradation, and illegal hunting.
• Protection status
  • IUCN red list : Critically Endangered
  • WPA 1972: Schedule I
  • CITES:Appendix I

ABOUT MANAS NATIONAL PARK

• It is located in Assam and is contiguous with the Royal Manas National Park in Bhutan.
• It is a national park, UNESCO Natural World Heritage site, a Project Tiger reserve, an elephant reserve and a biosphere reserve.
• Vegetation includes semi-evergreen forests, mixed moist and dry deciduous forests, and alluvial grasslands.
  • It contains some of the largest remaining grassland habitats in the sub-Himalayan grassland ecosystems.
• Fauna includes the Greater One-Horned Rhino, Swamp Deer, Pygmy Hog and Hispid Hare, Golden Langur, Endangered Bengal Florican etc.
• The Manas River is a major tributary of Brahmaputra River, which passes through the Manas National Park.