Environment › Species in news
Striped hyena
The striped hyena is India's only hyena, a nocturnal scavenger that clears carcasses and the pathogens in them. It has the highest protection the law gives, on Schedule I, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature calls it Near Threatened. What it does not have is a count. India has never censused it and has no national action plan for it, so its numbers are known only as a range.
The striped hyena
- 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.
What has happened
2 Sep 2026
A report named what is missing for a Schedule I species: no official census and no national action plan, so its numbers stand as an unchecked range.
- The case it makes for the animal is that clearing carrion removes sources of pathogens.
- With no earlier count to compare the range against, no trend is known.