Indian Hare - photograph by David Behrens

Indian hare (Lepus nigricollos) or Black-naped Hare, locally called Sassa is a mammal of open fields and plains. It is found almost everywhere in Haryana, and most of north India. It prefers busy tracts alternating with cultivation. It is usually nocturnal in habit. By day, it lies up in a scooped out hollow or 'form' made in the patch of grass. In this respect, it differs from the true rabbit which lives in a burrow and does not occur in India. This animal is a great menace to cultivation. It likes to feed on vegetable crops like carrot, radish, peas, cabbage etc. Reduced by snaring and shooting, the greatest cause for the decline in its population has been the destruction of plant cover.

Distribution: Haryana, rest of India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh (except Sunderbans delta).