Interesting facts about National and State animal icons in India

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What you find below is the answers to a quiz on National/State animals of India. 

Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus) :
The National Heritage animal of India, 

1.  Elephant. It was declared as the National heritage animal by MoEF on 21-10-2010.

2. River Dolphin. Also known as Gangetic dolphin, it has got the title from MoEF on 10-05-2010.

3.  Black Buck. Black Buck is the state animal for Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab.

4. Great Indian Bustard which is the state bird of Rajasthan. As of December 2012, it stays critically endangered

5. You guessed it correct that some island would be the answer. Butterfly fish which is the state animal of Laksha Dweep islands is the only non-mammal among the state animals in India.

6. Koel. Koel is the state bird for national capital region of Delhi and states of Jharkhand and Karnataka

7. Great Indian Bustard again. Unfortunately, authorities felt that GIB doesn’t have the looks to be a national bird. Moreover, the cultural context also backed peacocks candidature for the coveted title, apart from its beauty. Interestingly, Salim Ali was prophetic in suggesting GIB. The bird which was once distributed from Southern states of Karnataka to northern plains found its population plummeting down due to encroachment of grasslands in the coming years. Now it is on the verge of extinction with a critically endangered status in IUCN Red data list.  If GIB was declared as the national bird instead of pea cock, that would have helped it to survive the test of time and human greed.

8. Lion was India’s national animal till 1972. In 1973, tiger was re-notified as India’s national animal.

blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra).

9. Daman and Diu

10.  Mizoram and Manipur. Hume’s Bar Tailed pheasant which is also called Mrs. Hume’s Pheasant is the state bird for these two states.

11. Again an island. Andaman and Nicobar has declared Sea Cow as their state animal. Though it is an aquatic animal, it is a mammal.

12. Eight. Four Asiatic Lions standing back to back. It is interpreted that the four lions symbolize Power, Courage, Pride and Confidence. Apart from the four lions, the original emblem on the stupa depicts four more animals – one bull, one elephant, one bull and one horse as guardians of four directions. However, in the national emblem, as adopted by the government has three visible lions, one bull and one horse only.

STATE	ANIMAL	BIRD
Andhra Pradesh	Blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra)	Indian roller/blue Jay (Coracias benghalensis)
Arunachal Pradesh	Hoolock Gibbon (Bunopithecus hoolock hoolock)	Great Indian Hornbill (Buceros bicornis)
Assam	Indian One Horned Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis)	White winged wood duck (Asarcornis scutulata)
Bihar	Gaur (Bos frontalis / Bos gaurus)	Parakeet
Chhattisgarh	Wild Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis)	Hill myna (Gracula religiosa)
Goa	Gaur (Bos frontalis / Bos gaurus)	Ruby Throated Yellow bulbul (Brachypus gularis / Pycnonotus gularis)
Gujarat	Asiatic Lion (Panthera leo persica)	Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus rubber)
Haryana	Black Buck (Antilope cervicapra)	Black Patridge/ Black Francolin (Francolinus francolinus)
Himachal Pradesh	Snow Leopard (Uncia uncia/ Felis uncia)	Western Tragopan (Tragopan melanocephalus )
Jammu and Kashmir	Kashmir Stag (Cervus elaphus hanglu)	Black Necked Crane (Grus nigricollis)
Jharkhand	Indian Elephant  (Elephas maximus)	Koel  (Eudynamys scolopacea)
Karnataka	Spotted Deer (Axis axis)	Koel (Eudynamys scolopacea)
Kerala	Indian Elephant (Elephas maximus)	The Great Indian Hornbill (Buceros bicornis)
Madhya Pradesh	Swamp Deer  (Cervus duvaucelii)	Paradise fly catcher (Terpsiphone paradise)
Maharashtra	The giant Squirrel (Ratufa indica)	Great Imperial Pegion (Ducula aenea)
Manipur	Sangai (Cervus eldi eldi)	Hume’s Bar Tailed pheasant (Syrmaticus humiae)
Meghalaya	Clouded Leopard (Neofelis nebulosa)	Hill Myna (Gracula religiosa)
Mizoram	Serow (Naemorhedus sumatraensis)	Mrs. Hume’s Pheasant (Syrmaticus humiae)
Nagaland	Mithun (bos frontalis)	Blyth’s Tragopan (Tragopan blythii)
Odisha	Sambar (Cervus unicolor/ Rusa unicolor)	Indian roller ( blue Jay) (Coracias benghalensis)
Punjab	Blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra)	Eastern Goshwak (Astrus gentilis gentilis)
Rajasthan	Chinkara (Gazella bennettii)	Great Indian bustard (Ardeotis nigriceps)
Sikkim	Red panda (Ailurus fulgens)	Blood Pheasant (Ithaginis cruentus affinis)
Tamil Nadu	Nilgiri Tahr (Hemitragus hylocrius / Nilgiritragus hylocrius)	Emerald dove (Chalcophaps indica)
Tripura	Phayre’s Leaf Monkey (Trachypithecus phayrei)	Green Imperial Pegion  (Ducula aenea)
Uttarakhand	Himalayan Musk Deer (Moschus chrysogaster (?)   /Moschus leucogaster)	Himalayan Monal (Lophophorus impejanus)
Uttar Pradesh	Swamp Deer  (Cervus duvaucelii)	Sarus Crane (Grus antigone)
West Bengal	Fishing Cat (Prionailurus viverrinus)	White throated King fisher (Hlacyon smyrensis)
Andaman and Nicobar islands	Dungong (Sea Cow) (Dugong dugong / Trichehus dugong)	Andaman wood Pigeon (Carpophaga palumbodies / Columba palumbodies)
Chandigarh	Nil	nil
Dadra and Nagar Haveli	Striped Hyna (Hyaena hyaena)	Lesser Golden Backed Woodpecker (Dinopium benghalensis)
Daman and Diu	Yet to be declared	Yet to be declared
Laksha Dweep	Butterfly Fish	Sooty tern (Onychoprion fuscatus / Sterna fuscata nubilosa)
Delhi	Blue bull/ Neelgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus)	Shaheen ( Falcon) (Falco peregrinus peregrinator)
Puducherry	Indian Palm Squirrel (Funambulus palmarum)	Koel (Eudynamys scolopacea)

    Now don’t forget to post your reactions in the comment section below. 

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Courtesy:

Venkataraman, K., Chattopadhyay, A. and De, J. K. 2012. National and State Animals of India: 1-173.( Published by the Director, Zool. Surv. India, Kolkata)

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