Guwahati, March 23: The sighting of 20 pygmy hog nests in Manas National Park has brought cheer for wildlife conservationists amid recent poaching incidents.
A survey for grassland species was conducted from March 18-22 at the park and the specific targets of this collaborative survey were the highly endangered pygmy hog (porcula salvania) and hispid hare (caprolagus hispidus), for which Manas is the last remaining wild habitat.
A total of 17 camp sites under prime grassland habitat were surveyed under the two ranges of Bansbari and Bhuyanpara respectively, using GPS-based sign survey to look for indirect signs such as hog droppings, nests and hispid hare pellets and feeding signs.
“A total of 20 nests of pygmy hog were detected from three separate locations,” deputy director of the park, Sonali Ghosh, told The Telegraph.
“This is good news and Manas is one of the last strongholds for these endangered species in the wild,” field director A. Swargiary said.
The pygmy hog is a rare wild hog threatened by extinction and is in the critically endangered list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It is listed in Schedule-I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act. In the wild, pygmy hogs make small nests by digging a small trench and lining it with vegetation. During the heat of the day, they stay within these nests.
The population of all grassland species will need to be periodically monitored and the forest staff will be trained to monitor the same using indirect signs such as nests and droppings. Hispid hare pellets were found almost on all campsites. Besides, direct evidence was also obtained for other grassland species such as hog deer (hyelaphus porcinus), swamp deer (rucervus duvaucelii) and Bengal florican (houbaropsis bengalensis).
The survey team led by the Assam forest department, included individual grassland experts like Bibhuti Lahkar from Aaranyak, Gitanjali Banerji from Zoological Society of London and Kaushik Deuti from Zoological Survey of India, apart from several researchers and PhD students currently working in Manas.
Lahkar, a grassland specialist with Aaranyak, said wet alluvial grasslands dominated by barenga (saccharum narenga), ulu (imperata cylindrica) tree species were critical for the survival of pygmy hog and hence, must be protected by taking suitable measures such as early burning and systematic removal of anthropogenic pressure such as grazing and spread of invasive species.
Sonali Ghosh, who was part of the team, said a detailed report would be submitted to the government very soon. “This will include recommendations for making the population estimation an annual feature using non-invasive methods. It will also spell out specific conservation strategies to conserve the sites,” she said.
The killing of seven rhinos in Manas after it got back its heritage tag in 2011 had sent shockwaves across the world. In fact, Susie Ellis of International Rhino Foundation, one of the principal funding partners of Indian Rhino Vision 2020, had stated in an official meeting on January 30 here that it would be difficult for the national park to receive global support if the situation does not improve.
Manas will be one of the topics of discussion at the 38th meeting of the World Heritage Committee at Doha in Qatar in June.
