Environment › Species in news
Elephants and other land mammals
Elephants and India's other land mammals as species, from rhinos and wolves to primates, small cats and bats: their status, range and protection, and the counts and corridors they depend on. Prelims has asked about elephant herds, gestation and State populations.
Showing 1 of 4 subjects, those that changed from 1 to 15 September 2026.Show all
The striped hyena
Copy link to The striped hyenaPrelims
- The striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena) is India's only hyena, a nocturnal scavenger of carrion and not the spotted hyena of Africa.
- It is Near Threatened on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.
- It is on Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, which carries the strictest penalties for hunting.
- It lives in dry scrub and rocky hills across much of India.
- India holds an estimated 1,000 to 3,000, a range reported in September 2026 with no official census behind it.
- No national action plan covers it, so it is protected at the highest level the law offers and managed under no plan of its own.
No census and no action plan
A listing settles what may not be done to an animal; it does not oblige anyone to count it. A September 2026 report set out what that leaves open for a species the law already protects at its highest level.
- No earlier count exists for the range to be measured against, so no trend is known and nothing says whether the animal is gaining or losing ground.
- The case the report makes for it is sanitary, since a scavenger that clears carcasses removes the pathogens in them.
What changed
Also filed elsewhere
- Invasive weeds in elephant habitat · on Invasive alien species
A forest can stand intact and still hold nothing an elephant will eat.