49 Fun Facts About Indian Wildlife

Which cattle painkiller, banned in India in 2006, all but wiped out the country's Gyps vultures?

Diclofenac given to cattle caused kidney failure in vultures that fed on the carcasses, and more than 95% of the birds died off. Parsi sky burials in Mumbai faltered with too few vultures left to consume the dead.

Whose 1515 woodcut of an Indian rhinoceros sent from Gujarat to Lisbon was drawn without seeing it?

Albrecht Dürer worked from a written description and a brief sketch, the first rhinoceros in Europe since Roman times having reached Lisbon in May 1515. The real animal drowned in a shipwreck on its way to the Pope.

Which Madhya Pradesh park received eight cheetahs flown in from Namibia on 17 September 2022?

Kuno got five females and three males aged four to six, released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his birthday, and twelve more cheetahs arrived from South Africa in February 2023.

Poaching which animal in 1998 earned Bollywood star Salman Khan a five-year sentence in 2018?

Blackbuck are revered by Rajasthan's Bishnoi community, and it was Bishnoi villagers who filed the original poaching complaint that put the star on trial.

Which northeastern park, built on floating phumdi mats, is the world's only floating national park?

Keibul Lamjao's phumdis are thick mats of decaying vegetation and soil, and the park was created to save the sangai, a brow-antlered deer once thought extinct.

Which park within Mumbai's municipal limits is famed for leopards living beside millions of people?

Sanjay Gandhi National Park draws more than two million visitors a year and holds the Kanheri Caves cut by Buddhist monks. Researchers now frame its leopards as a case of coexistence as much as conflict.

Which Tamil Nadu reserve is the setting of The Elephant Whisperers, winner of a 2023 Academy Award?

In Mudumalai, Bomman and Bellie, a Kattunayakan couple, raised the orphaned calf Raghu, and the film became the first Indian winner of Best Documentary Short.

Which Indian crocodile has been seen balancing sticks on its snout, apparently to lure nest-building birds?

The mugger was watched lying log-still in the shallows with twigs across its snout and lunging at birds that waded close, in a 2013 study billed as the first report of tool use by a reptile.

Which Rajasthan reserve near Alwar was declared empty of tigers in 2005 after poachers wiped them out?

Sariska was restocked from 2008, when the first tigers were flown in by helicopter, and the reserve's population had climbed back to about 30 by 2023.

Which nearly blind river mammal, known locally as the susu, is India's national aquatic animal?

The Gangetic dolphin hunts murky water by echolocation with tiny lensless eyes, and in the shallows it swims on its side, the first cetacean recorded doing so.

Which 1972 law sorts India's protected species into schedules and gives Schedule I absolute cover?

The Wild Life (Protection) Act largely outlawed hunting across India, and it was enacted in September 1972, when the country had only five national parks.

Which Himalayan animal has been Sikkim's state animal since the early 1990s?

The red panda's false thumb is really an enlarged wrist bone, and in India the animal lives mainly in Sikkim, northern West Bengal and Arunachal Pradesh.

Which bird, the tallest that can fly at up to 1.8 metres, is Uttar Pradesh's state bird?

The sarus crane is widely believed to pair for life, though 'divorces' and mate replacement have been recorded, and it is classed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.

Which large forest bird is the state bird of both Kerala and Arunachal Pradesh?

The great hornbill's female seals herself into a tree hollow with a plaster made mostly of faeces, and the species has lived nearly 50 years in captivity.

Which Rajasthan tiger reserve surrounds a 10th-century Chauhan hill fort made a UNESCO site in 2013?

Ranthambore Fort was founded by the Chauhan king Sapaldaksha in the mid-10th century, and its Trinetra Ganesha temple draws thousands of pilgrims every Wednesday.

Which Rajasthan bird park, a duck-shooting reserve from 1899, was World Heritage-listed in 1985?

Keoladeo went from a princely duck shoot to the Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary in 1956, and the last of the Siberian cranes that once wintered there arrived in 2001–02.

Which small bird is the state bird of both Delhi and Bihar?

Delhi adopted the house sparrow in 2012 to promote its conservation as numbers in the capital fell, while Gujarat picked the greater flamingo and Puducherry and Jharkhand both chose the Asian koel.

Which ape, the only one native to India, lives in the forests of the seven northeastern states?

Hoolock gibbons call to locate family members and warn off rivals, and the Hoollongapar sanctuary near Jorhat held 125 of them in 2023, with a railway line through the forest threatening the tree-dwelling apes.

Which Rajasthan state bird, numbering about 150 by 2018, keeps colliding with power lines in the Thar?

The great Indian bustard was a proposed candidate for India's national bird but was dropped in favour of the peafowl, and its numbers fell from about 250 in 2011 to 150 in 2018.

Which Indian animal carries its cubs on its back and sucks up termites with a noise heard 180 metres away?

Sloth bear cubs ride their mother until they reach a third of her size, and Kipling's 'sleepy brown bear' Baloo is usually read as a sloth bear, the only bear living in the Seoni forests where The Jungle Book is set.

Which ornithologist, the 'Birdman of India', first published The Book of Indian Birds in 1941?

Salim Ali was the first Indian to run systematic bird surveys across the country, and his influence helped save the Silent Valley rainforest from a dam.

Which 1944 Jim Corbett bestseller did Universal turn into a 1948 film starring Sabu?

Man-Eaters of Kumaon retells Corbett's own hunts of man-eating tigers, yet the film ignored every one of his stories and invented its own plot.

Which Seoni-district reserve in Madhya Pradesh is among the places said to have inspired The Jungle Book?

Pench became the core of a tiger reserve in 1992, and its claim rests on Kipling's wolf pack, which he placed in the 'Seeonee' hills of the district around it.

Which Ladakh park, the largest in India, has the highest snow leopard density of any protected area?

Hemis owes its cats to its prey: bharal, urial and argali graze its valleys, and a national count released in 2024 put 477 of India's 718 snow leopards in Ladakh.

Which marine mammal is the state animal of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands?

The dugong, a seagrass-grazing sea cow, was once numerous around the islands but is now known there from only a few records, while Lakshadweep picked the butterfly fish.

Which antelope, the largest in Asia, is the state animal of Delhi?

The nilgai's name is usually read as Hindi for 'blue cow', and villagers long linked it with the sacred cow, yet Bihar had the crop-raider declared vermin so it could be culled.

Which cat, Meghalaya's state animal, is called a 'modern-day sabre-tooth' for its oversized canines?

The clouded leopard can climb down tree trunks head first and hang from branches by its hind paws, and in India it ranges across Sikkim, the northeast and northern West Bengal.

Under which governor's name was India's first national park created in 1936 in today's Uttarakhand?

Hailey National Park covered 323.75 sq km when Sir Malcolm Hailey governed the United Provinces, and it became Ramganga National Park in 1954–55 before taking Jim Corbett's name a year later.

Which deity do Sundarbans honey collectors invoke for protection before entering tiger country?

Bonbibi is venerated by both Hindu and Muslim residents of the delta, and her arch-enemy Dakshin Rai, the 'Lord of the South', attacks people in the guise of a tiger.

Which three-state river reserve protects the gharial and the red-crowned roofed turtle?

The National Chambal Sanctuary stretches 5,400 sq km along the Chambal, first declared in Madhya Pradesh in 1978, and its long narrow eco-reserve is co-administered by Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

Which park 22 km from Srinagar, first protected in 1910, is famed for the hangul, or Kashmir stag?

Dachigam means 'ten villages', after those relocated to make the park, which began under the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir and was created to secure clean drinking water for Srinagar.

Which mountain goat, the state animal of Tamil Nadu, is most numerous in Kerala's Eravikulam park?

The Nilgiri tahr got a rescue plan of its own in 2022, when Tamil Nadu launched Project Nilgiri Tahr to radio-collar the herds and revive the shola grasslands they graze.

Which Gujarat landscape holds the Indian Wild Ass Sanctuary, the last refuge of the khur clocked at 70–80 km/h?

The Little Rann of Kutch held only 720 wild asses in 1976, and the census climbed to 7,672 in 2024 within the Indian Wild Ass Sanctuary.

What Spanish term names the synchronised mass nesting of olive ridley turtles on Odisha's beaches?

An arribada can bring thousands of females ashore within days, and nobody is sure what sets one off, though strong winds and the moon's cycle are among the suspects.

Which Mandla-district tiger reserve was India's first with an official mascot, Bhoorsingh?

Kanha's mascot is a barasingha, the swamp deer the park pulled back from just 66 animals, and by 2023 the herd was strong enough to send deer to restock Bandhavgarh.

Which crested pheasant is the state bird of Uttarakhand and, as the danphe, the national bird of Nepal?

The Himalayan monal digs through snow with its curved bill for roots and insects, and males are poached for their crest feathers; Himachal Pradesh chose the western tragopan instead.

Which multicoloured rodent, with a head-and-body length up to 50 cm, is Maharashtra's state animal?

The Indian giant squirrel, shekaru in Marathi, is one of the largest squirrels anywhere, and Maharashtra's Bhimashankar sanctuary was created mainly to protect its habitat.

Which World Heritage park on the Bhutan border spent 1992 to 2011 on UNESCO's list of sites in danger?

Manas was listed in 1985 and then flagged for heavy poaching and insurgent violence; it borders Bhutan's Royal Manas park and is also a tiger reserve and an elephant reserve.

Which Delhi Zoo director, dubbed the 'Tiger Man of India', was the first head of Project Tiger in 1973?

Kailash Sankhala took charge as India woke up to a collapse: a national count of the early 1970s found only about 1,800 tigers, and the scheme began with just nine reserves.

Whose failure to spot a rhinoceros at Kaziranga in 1904 pushed her viceroy husband to protect the area?

Lady Curzon's plea set Kaziranga's protection in motion: a reserve forest was proposed there in 1905, and the park became a World Heritage Site in 1985.

Which tiger reserve, the largest in India, lies along the Krishna river in the Nallamala hills?

Nagarjunsagar-Srisailam stayed the country's largest tiger reserve even after Andhra Pradesh was split in 2014 and the Telangana side of its forest became the separate Amrabad reserve.

Which Jharkhand forest, later one of the first nine tiger reserves, ran a pugmark count of tigers in 1932?

Palamau's 1932 count ran under divisional forest officer J. W. Nicholson, yet by the 2020s the reserve was being called 'tiger-less' until one was sighted in March 2023 after three years.

Which lizard, in Maratha legend, was tied to a rope so Tanaji Malusare could scale a fort wall?

The Bengal monitor, ghorpad in Marathi, can reach 175 cm, and in the tale a tame one named Yashwanti gripped the cliff at Sinhagad so Tanaji's men could climb the rope.

Which Western Ghats amphibian, first described in 2003, surfaces for only two weeks a year to mate?

The purple frog's nearest relatives are tiny frogs found only in the Seychelles, a kinship traced to the time when India and those islands were one landmass, before Gondwana broke apart.

Which body, founded by eight men at a museum in 1883, is among India's largest conservation NGOs?

The Bombay Natural History Society met first in the Victoria and Albert Museum on 15 September 1883, and today publishes its own journal from a purpose-built headquarters in south Mumbai.

Which Tamil Nadu wetland, protected by an 18th-century order its villagers won, became a sanctuary in 1936?

Vedanthangal's villagers won a written order from the Chingleput collector in the 1790s letting them stop anyone shooting the birds, whose droppings enriched the tank water on their fields.

Which antelope of the Tibetan plateau and Ladakh is killed for shahtoosh, its underfur woven into shawls?

The chiru has to be killed for its underfur, and it takes three to five animals to make one shahtoosh shawl, long a prized wedding gift in India.

Which raptor, netted en masse at Nagaland's Pangti village in 2012, migrates over the Arabian Sea to Africa?

The Amur falcon breeds in south-eastern Siberia and northern China and crosses India in large flocks, and a successful campaign begun after the 2012 trapping ended the killing.

Which nocturnal Indian snake has fangs so small that a sleeping victim may never notice the bite?

The common krait's venom paralyses breathing, so an untreated victim can die within four to five hours, and untreated bites carry a mortality rate as high as 70–80%.