Habitat Characteristics of the Critically Endangered Pigmy Hog (Porcula salvania) of Manas National Park and Rajiv Gandhi Orang National Park in Assam, Northeast India P. P. Mary, Radha Raman Sinha, Awadhesh Kumar, Mintu Medhi, Gautam Narayan and Parag Deka 1 Introduction The pygmy hog (Porcula salvania) is one of the endemic animals of northeast India and it is the smallest and the rarest wild Suid in the world. The animal was once distributed in tall, wet grasslands throughout the range of southern foothills of the Himalayas, occurring only in the Indian sub-continent (Oliver 1985). These habitats were known as ‘‘terai’’, which are essentially flat, thinly-forested and well- drained (Oliver 1980). Pygmy hog is an indicator species of ‘‘terai’’ ecosystem. Currently, however, it is restricted to small populations in a few pockets along Assam’s border with Bhutan. These grasslands are characterized by the presence of tall thatch, or elephant grasses. This habitat is fringed on the south by similar looking lowland savannah, which gets waterlogged during monsoons. Most of this area has been taken over for paddy cultivation. Pigmy hog was thought to be extinct from India, but in 1971 this species was rediscovered from Manas National Park (NP), Assam (Oliver 1980). In fact, the only viable population of the species exists in the Manas NP and nowhere else in the world (Narayan and Deka 2008). The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has accorded the highest priority rating (Status Category 6—Critically Endangered) to the species putting it among the most endangered of all mammals. It is also listed in the Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. Thus the conservation of the species is important on priority basis for ensuring their survival. P. P. Mary (&)  R. R. Sinha  A. Kumar  M. Medhi Forestry Department, North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology(NERIST)-Deemed University, Nirjuli P.O., Papum Pare District, Arunachal Pradesh 791109, India e-mail: purakat@yahoo.co.in G. Narayan  P. Deka Pigmy Hog Conservation Breeding Centre, Guwahati, Assam 781029, India S. Nautiyal et al. (eds.), Knowledge Systems of Societies for Adaptation and Mitigation of Impacts of Climate Change, Environmental Science and Engineering, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-36143-2_24, Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013 405