National & State Symbols

World over, countries have chosen several symbols as their National or State symbols. A nation can have an animal, tree, bird, or an object as its national symbol.

I feel focusing on a single thing works against the diversity of natural things like trees, rivers, animals and birds. In a country as large and as diverse as India, it is difficult to say any single thing can represent the spirit of whole nation. Aside the Nation, all individual States and Union Territories have declared different State symbols as representative of their region. Should Divisions, Sub-divisions, Districts and City authorities too declare their own sets of symbols?

How many National Symbols you're familiar with?

Forget about the international community; I doubt most local citizens themselves don’t know about their National or State symbols. To give an idea, let me list some of the National symbols of India:

1. National Animal of India
2. National Bird of India
3. National Flower of India
4. National Fruit of India
5. National Song of India
6. National Anthem of India
7. National Game of India
8. National Tree of India
9. National Emblem of India
10. National River of India
11. National Currency of India
12. National Heritage Animal of India
13. National Aquatic Animal of India
14. National Reptile of India
15. National Flag of India

There are many more. But tell me honestly, how many of these you could answer correctly?

You can tally your answers with the following key:

1. Royal Bengal Tiger
2. Peacock or the Indian peafowl
3. Lotus
4. Mango
5. Vande Mataram
6. Jana Gana Mana
7. Hockey
8. The Banyan tree
9. A Representation of the Lion Capital of Ashoka at Sarnath
10. The Ganges or River Ganga
11. Bitcoin …err, it’s Indian Rupee
12. Elephant
13. River Dolphin or Ganges river dolphin
14. King Cobra
15. Tiranga

Animals as National Symbol

Let’s talk about animals and birds as symbols. What does that mean? Many countries have animals that are now long extinct. Countries like Sweden, North Korea Greece and Scotland have some mythical creature as their National animal. Don’t they have any live animal now?

Between 1952 to 1972, Asiatic Lion was the National Animal of India. But later it was changed to the Bengal Tiger. When the Modi Governemnt came to power, there were serious discussions to usurp the tiger and choose Saurashtra’s Lion as the National Animal. In fact, it was actually proposed in the meeting of the Standing Committee of the National Board for Wildlife.

But how many of you have actually seen a Royal Bengal Tiger or an Asiatic Lion in the wild? More embarrassing is the fact that you will find these National creatures in every zoo around the country. Do we need to make our National Animal a captive? National river Ganges is probably the most polluted river of India. You can’t find a single river dolphin – the National Aquatic Animal of India, in it now. Elephant, the National Heritage Animal of India is among the most exploited and tortured animals in India. A chicken loving country like France has Rooster as its National Animal! Recently, Nepal has declared cows as its National Animal but the Government there is aggressively promoting dairy industry.

Has conferring National Symbol status really helped animals?

Won’t animals be better without the “National” or “State” tag? We need to protect the diversity of whole ecosystem and should not be picky of a handful of animal species to confer them some special status. No animal is greater or lesser than the other. The whole of Nature is our “National” heritage and should be guarded and protected well.

The whole practice of choosing animals as one's National symbols is archaic and out of context today. These are not the days when one king can deter other king from attacking him by mentioning that his territory is full of tigers!

What do you think on this issue?
Do share your thoughts with me.

Thank you!