Assam's Pygmy Hog Numbers Rise 32-Fold, but Wild Survival Hinges on Grassland Recovery
Assam's pygmy hog captive breeding effort has raised numbers 32-fold in three decades, but the species' wild future rests on restoring fragmented floodplain grasslands.
The pygmy hog, the only surviving member of the genus Porcula and the smallest wild pig in the world, has become a measure of the health of India's alluvial floodplains. The animal relies heavily on dense grasslands for food, cover and breeding, so its distress signals a degraded floodplain. Safeguarding it also brings protection to other threatened species, including the Bengal florican, hispid hare, hog deer and the greater one-horned rhinoceros.
The Assam government recently acknowledged a captive breeding programme that has increased the State's pygmy hog population 32-fold over the past three decades. Raising the animals from a small founder stock calls for careful pedigree tracking, biosafety measures and conditioning before release, since suids are highly vulnerable to swine diseases and inbreeding.
Survival in the wild, however, depends on the survival of specific ecosystems, and that remains unfinished work. The species was thought to be extinct by the mid-20th century, after floodplains were converted for farms, tea plantations and flood control infrastructure, degraded by invasive plants and altered flood cycles, and further fragmented by unscientific burning of grasslands. A few individuals were rediscovered in 1971, and the current effort dates to the Pygmy Hog Conservation Programme launched in 1995.
Counting the animals remains difficult because they are hard to spot. Some 250 individuals were estimated to exist in early 2025, with the last surviving natural population in the Panbari grasslands of Manas National Park. Captive animals serve as an insurance group, but their long-term evolutionary fitness is not assured. Researchers are watching for the accumulation of harmful gene variants and low genetic diversity, and look to the restoration of natural habitats.
Alluvial floodplains are dynamic systems. Beyond land conversion, well-intentioned interventions such as widespread dry-season fires can destroy the dense cover the hog needs, while suppressing ecological processes allows trees and shrubs to turn grassland into woodland. With a plan to raise the wild population to 300 by 2040, Assam needs to reverse the fragmentation of its protected grasslands, particularly in Rupahi and Kanchanbari, and restore buffer zones around Manas and Orang National Parks and the Sonai Rupai Wildlife Sanctuary.