In a conservation drive to repopulate the pygmy hog population, seven male and five female hogs were released into the wild of Manas. Pygmy hogs are the smallest in the hog family and are native to lands tall and well grasslands.
They were also once found in the Himalayan foothills of Bhutan, Nepal, and India. Its population was feared to have gone extinct in the 1960s due to its rapid decrease and was later rediscovered by conservationists in 1971 in Assam.
As the number of hogs in the wild dwindles around 250, various organizations together have come up with the Pygmy Hog Conservation Programme with aims to revive their population. With the recent release, the program has released a total of 142 hogs.
The program’s field scientist Dhritiman Das told the press that they aim to release 60 more hogs in the next four years so that they could build their population in the wild. The program also seeks to rehabilitate the grasslands which are home to tiny creatures that measure about 25 centimeters in height and 65 centimeters in length and weigh around 8-9 kilograms.