Centre to soon launch Rhino conservation project: Bhupendra Yadav

The Pygmy Hog—the world’s smallest and rarest wild pig—will be included in the list of “critically endangered species” under a central conservation scheme.

Published on: Jul 10, 2026, 08:43:06 IST

By Jasjeev Gandhiok, New Delhi

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Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav on Thursday announced that a dedicated project for the conservation of the greater one-horned rhinoceros will soon be launched, while the Pygmy Hog—the world’s smallest and rarest wild pig—will be included in the list of “critically endangered species” under a central conservation scheme.

The announcements were made during a series of wildlife conservation meetings chaired by Yadav in Coimbatore. (@byadavbjp X)

The announcements were made during a series of wildlife conservation meetings chaired by Yadav in Coimbatore, including the 91st meeting of the Standing Committee of the National Board for Wildlife (SC-NBWL) and 46th Meeting of the Central Zoo Authority (CZA), where the progress of Project Great Indian Bustard (GIB), Project Sloth Bear and other conservation initiatives was reviewed.

“A dedicated project for rhino conservation will be launched soon with the assistance of National CAMPA in the species’ range states,” the environment ministry said in a statement.

The ministry added that the Pygmy Hog would be included in the list of critically endangered species under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats (CSS-IDWH), which provides financial assistance to states to protect certain species or wildlife areas.

The Pygmy Hog is the sole representative of the genus Porcula, a species first described by naturalist Brian Houghton Hodgson in 1847. Conservationists consider its survival crucial because its extinction would erase an entire evolutionary lineage of wild pigs.

The meeting also reviewed progress under the Great Indian Bustard conservation programme. Yadav said a second “jumpstart” attempt to reintroduce the critically endangered bird in Gujarat’s Naliya landscape had shown encouraging results, with a chick born on May 21, this year, surviving beyond the critical first 40 days.

The jumpstart technique involves placing an incubated fertile egg from a captive breeding programme into the nest of a wild female, allowing the chick to hatch and be raised in its natural habitat.

“Besides this, the total number of GIB chicks born in captivity in Rajasthan at Sam and Ramdevra have reached 98. The project will soon be entering into a re-wilding phase for which efforts are on,” Yadav said.

The Standing Committee also discussed a long-term conservation strategy for the greater one-horned rhinoceros based on a rhino DNA indexing system and reviewed more than 100 proposals involving roads, defence infrastructure, power lines, water supply and other development projects requiring wildlife clearances.

On the same day, the minister was involved in the 29th meeting of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) where key policy, management and institutional issues relating to tiger conservation and wildlife management in the country were discussed. Following the meeting, two publications, one on the status of tiger reserves in the country and the second on rescue and rehabilitation of wild animals in tiger landscapes, were also released.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jasjeev Gandhiok
Jasjeev Gandhiok is an Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times, where he covers environment, climate change, the clean energy transition and wildlife at the National Bureau. Gandhiok has over a decade of experience in journalism and is based in Delhi. He has reported extensively on Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR). This includes the region's air pollution woes, a polluted Yamuna and on urban wildlife still thriving in the region. He joined HT in October 2021. Prior to that, he had five-year stint at The Times of India in Delhi, where he also covered Delhi, with a focus on environment and wildlife. Gandhiok has covered some recent events around the Capital too, ranging from the farmers' protests, the northeast Delhi riots and the CAA-NRC protests, reporting from the ground on all of these. He also travels across the country to report on how environment and climate change impact everyday life, while also writing on endangered species. His reports in 2019 on toxic leachate from Delhi's landfills led to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) taking suo motu cognisance and ultimately asking the state government to start bio-mining to flatten and remove all three landfills in the capital. He also closely tracks the implementation of government policies on climate, renewable energy and environmental protection. His focus remains on impactful, public-interest journalism which explains how environmental decisions affect people's everyday lives.Read More

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