GUWAHATI

The population of the endangered pygmy hog (Porcula salvania), once thought to be extinct, has increased from six individuals in 1996 to 194 through a captive breeding programme in Assam.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma described the recovery of the endangered grassland health indicator species, found nowhere else in India, as a “big comeback” for a “small hog” through decades of dedicated conservation efforts.

Standing about 25 cm tall and weighing up to 9.7 kg, the pygmy hog is the world’s smallest and rarest wild pig.

“The goal is to increase their number to 300 by 2040 so that the species can thrive on its own,” the Chief Minister said on Saturday (September 12, 2026).

British naturalist Gerald Durrell and his trust initiated the pygmy hog conservation in 1971. It led to the Pygmy Hog Conservation Programme (PHCP).

The Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust of the United Kingdom, the Assam Forest Department, the Wild Pig Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change are the PHCP collaborators.

Assam-based biodiversity conservation organisation Aaranyak and Ecosystems India are implementing the programme.

The conservation programme began after conservationists captured six pygmy hogs from the Bansbari range of Manas National Park in 1996 and brought them to a captive breeding facility on the southern edge of Guwahati.

Conservationists began reintroducing the pygmy hogs to the wild in 2008. The mammals are now found in the Sonai-Rupai Wildlife Sanctuary, Bornadi Wildlife Sanctuary, Orang National Park, and Manas National Park.