Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday, June 9, 2026, announced the release of 15 pygmy hogs into the wild at Manas National Park under the state's ongoing Pygmy Hog Conservation Programme, describing the milestone as a step toward restoring fragile grassland ecosystems and protecting one of the world's rarest wild pigs.

Context

The pygmy hog (Porcula salvania) is a critically endangered species and among the smallest wild pigs on earth. Once found across the terai grasslands stretching from Pakistan to Myanmar, it now survives almost exclusively in the alluvial grasslands of Assam. The species was believed extinct until its rediscovery in the 1970s, and its continued survival depends almost entirely on targeted conservation intervention.

Manas National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site inscribed in 1985, serves as the primary release site for the programme. The park was placed on the UNESCO List of World Heritage in Danger between 1992 and 2011 due to poaching and insurgency, before sustained protection and habitat management efforts restored its status — making it a symbol of ecological recovery in the region.

Policy Backdrop

The Pygmy Hog Conservation Programme has been operational in Assam since the mid-1990s, with captive-breeding operations commencing in 1996. The programme is run through a partnership between the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, the Assam Forest Department, and local non-governmental organisations. First experimental releases into Manas were carried out in the 2000s, and the programme has continued to expand its release efforts over subsequent years.

Assam under Chief Minister Sarma has positioned systematic reintroduction of grassland specialists as a core pillar of the state's post-insurgency ecological recovery strategy. These efforts also align with India's obligations under the Convention on Biological Diversity. Similar captive-breeding and release programmes have been extended to other threatened species across the Brahmaputra valley and adjoining reserves.

Stakeholders and Impact

The release directly benefits the fragile grassland biome within and around Manas National Park, which supports a suite of threatened species including tigers, rhinos, and elephants alongside the pygmy hog. Conservation NGOs involved in the programme stand to gain from the state government's continued institutional support and funding alignment.

Fringe communities around Manas are also stakeholders in this process — the park's recovery from its 'danger list' years required local cooperation, and ongoing reintroduction efforts depend on reduced poaching pressure and habitat encroachment from surrounding villages. Strengthening the pygmy hog population contributes to the broader ecological health of the grassland system that these communities depend on.

What's Next

Annual monitoring of the survival and breeding success of the released individuals will be critical to assessing the programme's long-term viability. Conservationists and the Assam Forest Department are expected to track the hogs' adaptation to the wild habitat at Manas. Any future announcements on extending the programme to additional grassland patches in Assam or neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh will be closely watched by wildlife researchers and policy observers.

The latest release reinforces Assam's emerging identity as a conservation leader in northeastern India, with the state increasingly leveraging its protected-area network to reverse decades of habitat loss and species decline across the Brahmaputra floodplains.