African Swine fever threatens India’s Pygmy Hog

African Swine fever threatens India’s Pygmy Hog

Subject: Environment

Section: Species in new

Context: The world’s rarest and smallest wild pig species is “extremely susceptible to extinction” from ASF due to its small populations and limited range.

Pygmy Hogs

• Scientific Name: Porcula salvania
• Pygmy Hogs are the world’s rarest and smallest members of the pig family.
• It is one of the very few mammals that build its own home, or nest, complete with a ‘roof’.
• It is an indicator species as its presence reflects the health of its primary habitat, tall and wet grasslands.
• Habitat:
  • Once found in the narrow strip of tall and wet grassland plains on the Himalayan foothills, from Uttar Pradesh to Assam, through Nepal’s terai areas and Bengal’s duars, it was thought to have become extinct in the 1960s.
  • Currently, the only known population lives in Assam, India and possibly southern Bhutan. The only viable population in the wild is in the Manas Tiger Reserve in Assam.
• Threats
  • One of the main reasons for its decreasing numbers was grassland degradation due to grass burning in the dry season and livestock overgrazing.
• Protection Status
  • IUCN Red List: Endangered
  • Wildlife Protection Act, 1972: Schedule I

Pygmy Hog Conservation Programme

• Conservation of pygmy hog was initiated by noted naturalist Gerald Durrell and his trust in 1971. While efforts, in the form of a conservation survey, had begun in the late 1970s, the PHCP took off in 1995.
• It follows a two-pronged action plan
  • Conservation breeding of the animal against possible early extinction and re-introduction in selected sites.
  • Habitat management.
• Under it, six hogs (two males and four females) were captured from the Bansbari range of the Manas National Park in 1996 for starting the breeding programme.
• The success of the initial programme has led to subsequent efforts.
  • Between 2008 and 2020, scientists released 130 pygmy hogs into two national parks, Manas and Orang, and two wildlife sanctuaries, Barnadi and SonaiRupai, all in Assam.
  • By 2025, the PHCP plans to release 60 pygmy hogs in Manas.

• Apart from captive breeding, habitat management in these reintroduction sites was important before the animals were released.
• Experts have been working on a ‘Re-wild project’ in Manas on grassland management and restoration.

African swine fever:

• It is a highly contagious viral and fatal animal disease that infects and leads to an acute form of hemorrhagic fever in domestic and wild pigs.
• It was first detected in Africa in the 1920s.
• The mortality is close to 100% and since the fever has no cure, the only way to stop its spread is by culling the animals.
• ASF is not a threat to human beings since it only spreads from animals to other animals.
• ASF is a disease listed in the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) Terrestrial Animal Health Code and thus, reported to the OIE.