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Part II: Species AccountsStatus in the Wild
Threats: Most of the habitat in pygmy hogs known and pre-
sumed range has been converted to human settlements and
farmland. The remaining grassland areas also became frag-
mented and the resulting pockets became smaller and suffered
increased levels of human disturbance. Factors such as indis-
criminate dry- season burning, grass cutting, domestic livestock
grazing, commercial forestry, flood-control schemes, the col-
lection of minor forest produce and hunting degraded most of
these grasslands. By the early 1970s the species survived in only
a few pockets of remnant grasslands in Assam, but agricultural
encroachment and other disturbances continued. By the mid
1980s the species had disappeared from all but two of the known
sites in the state, and by the early 1990s, the viable population
of the species survived only in Manas National Park. However,
even this population is steadily declining due to inadequate pro-
tection and unscientific habitat management. These may also
be responsible for the spread of invasive plants such as Mimosa
diplotrica, Chromolaena odorata, Mikania micrantha and suc-
cessional plants such as Leea asiatica, which are now becoming
a big threat in many grassland areas, including those in Manas
and reintroduction sites.Past Conservation Efforts (1971 to 1994)
Several measures were undertaken to conserve the species and
its habitat after the ‘rediscovery’ of pygmy hogs in 1971, but many
in vain. It was given top priority by inclusion in the Schedule I
of the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 by India and in Appendix I
of the CITES, the latter despite the fact that international trade
was not an issue for the species. In 1981, the Barnadi Reserve
Forest in Assam was upgraded to a Wildlife Sanctuary mainly
to accord better protection to grassland species such as pygmy
hog and hispid hare, but protection machinery has broken
down in the protected area (PA) after intensification ethnic dis-
turbances around 1990. In 1973, Manas became one of the first
Tiger Reserves of India and was designated as a UNESCO World
Heritage Site in 1986. The Bhutan Government had shown some
interest in pygmy hog conservation in late 1990s, but deterio-
ration of the security situation along the Indo-Bhutan border
hampered this initiative.
Several attempts were also made to breed the animal in cap-
tivity between 1971 and 1990 and despite more than 50 wild
hogs being taken into captivity and a relatively large number
(> 50) of recorded captive births, all efforts in the tea estates in
western Assam near Barnadi, Assam State Zoo, Zurich Zoo, and
in the Bansbari Range of Manas National Park failed, and by
1993 no pygmy hog survived in captivity anywhere on Earth
(Mallinson 1977; Oliver 1980; Oliver & Deb Roy 1993). These
projects involved considerable effort and expenditure but they
did not succeed due to the lack of proper facilities and scien-
tific approach, and the inexperience of managers (Oliver 1980;
Narayan & Oliver 2015).
The Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust (DWCT) and
IUCN/SSC Wild Pig Specialist Group (WPSG) have carried out
surveys and studies on pygmy hogs since the late 1970s and haveput forward a number of recommendations for the conservation
of the species (Oliver & Deb Roy 1993). Unfortunately, few of
these recommendations were implemented until 1995.Pygmy Hog Conservation Programme
(1995 Onwards)
In 1995, DWCT and WPSG initiated the Pygmy Hog Conserva-
tion Programme (PHCP) in collaboration with the Government
of Assam and the Government of India (Oliver et al. 1997), and
since 2005 the activities of the Programme have been managed
by a local conservation organization, EcoSystems-India, with
the active support of the above four partners.
Major activities under the programme include: field sur-
veys, conservation breeding after capturing founders from the
wild, preparing the captive hogs in a semi-wild facility, proper
grassland management and restoration at the release sites,
reintroduction and monitoring of released populations, bio-
logical and behavioural studies in captivity, and conservation
education and action in the fringe areas of Manas and release
sites. Recommendations for the better conservation of the rem-
nant and reintroduced hog populations and scientific man-
agement of grassland habitats in selected areas of Assam have
also been submitted to the relevant authorities and have been
included in the various published and unpublished reports of
the programme.
The conservation breeding initiative was started from
scratch, as no pygmy hog survived in captivity anywhere by
the time the programme was launched. Construction of the
Research and Breeding Centre started in late 1995 at Basistha,
on the outskirts of Guwahati city in Assam, and was ready to
house the animals by March 1996. The facility comprised a spe-
cially designed range of 10 inner and eight outer interconnected
enclosures, perimeter fence, project house, and staff accommo-
dation. The outer enclosures or paddocks were planted with tall
grasses brought from known pygmy hog habitats.Capture Operations (1996)
Because the project was given permission to bring only six hogs
into captivity, despite justifying a need to catch at least 12 found-
ers for genetic reasons, a plan was made to catch 2–3 pregnant
females from the wild to boost the genetic makeup of the cap-
tive population. As reproduction in this species was known to be
strongly seasonal, with almost all documented births coinciding
with the onset of rains in late April and May (Oliver 1980), the
capture operation in 1996 was timed to coincide with expected
mid-term pregnancy. Extensive consultations with specialists
had indicated that this was a period of least risk for pregnant
sows.
The only known method of catching wild pigmy hogs
unharmed is by flushing them from cover and driving them into
a series of 3–4 nets deployed over a length of 40–50 m in dense
grass using elephants and pedestrian beaters. The use of ele-
phants is necessary as the riders can spot the hogs as well as any
potentially dangerous animal in the tall grass, and also facilitate
passage through the dense patches of vegetation. A total of 57.02412:46:11