Thirty years ago, conservationists pulled the last known pygmy hogs out of an Assam grassland to save the species from disappearing entirely. This June, their descendants were released back into that exact patch of ground.

  • 6 pygmy hogs founded the breeding programme in 1996
  • 194 hogs have now been bred and released across Assam
  • 78 of those releases happened in Manas National Park alone
  • 300 is the population target Assam has set for 2040

From six survivors to a breeding programme

In 1996, conservationists captured six pygmy hogs (Porcula salvania) from the Kuribeel grasslands of Manas National Park. The species — the world's smallest and rarest wild pig, standing about 25 centimeters tall and weighing under 10 kilograms — had come dangerously close to vanishing from its only home in the tall, wet grasslands of the Himalayan foothills.

Those six animals founded the Pygmy Hog Conservation Programme (PHCP), a partnership between the UK's Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, the Assam Forest Department, and the IUCN's Wild Pig Specialist Group. British naturalist Gerald Durrell first flagged the species for conservation attention back in 1971, and local partners Aaranyak and EcoSystems-India now help run the programme on the ground.

Reintroductions to the wild began in 2008. Since then, captive-bred hogs have been released into the Sonai-Rupai Wildlife Sanctuary, Bornadi Wildlife Sanctuary, Orang National Park, and Manas National Park.

What the June release changed

This June, 15 more captive-bred hogs — nine females and six males — went home to the Kuribeel grasslands where the original six were captured. No confirmed signs of pygmy hogs had been recorded there in nine years.

That release brought the total number of hogs bred and reintroduced across Assam to 194, according to The Better India's reporting on the programme. For a species once feared extinct, conservationists say the number carries particular weight: for the first time since the programme began, wild-born pygmy hogs may now outnumber the ones still living in captivity.

"The goal is to increase their number to 300 by 2040 so that the species can thrive on its own," Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, describing the recovery as a "big comeback" for a "small hog."

Why a tiny pig matters this much

Conservationists consider the pygmy hog a flagship species for tall grasslands. If the hogs can survive and breed on their own, it's a strong signal that the fragile habitat around them is recovering too — the grasses provide the cover, food, and nesting sites the hogs need, and few other species depend on that specific habitat as completely.

Habitat loss, invasive plants, and human disturbance have all squeezed the grasslands pygmy hogs need to survive. Breeding more hogs solves only half the puzzle: each release still needs suitable habitat waiting on the other end, which is why grassland restoration runs alongside the captive-breeding work rather than as an afterthought.

What comes next

India's Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has now included the pygmy hog in its national Species Recovery plans, opening the door for the animal to eventually return to more of its historical range in the Terai grasslands beyond Assam. The species was once found from Uttar Pradesh across the northern Indian foothills before hunting and habitat loss confined it to a handful of protected pockets.

For now, the work continues in Assam, one release at a time. Each cohort of captive-bred hogs that survives its first wild breeding season adds a little more evidence that a species written off as gone for good can still find its way back — six pigs and thirty years later.