Символы Индии и штатов

Lists online count anywhere from ten to twenty national symbols; there is no single official count. These are the ones with an adoption date.

The tiger replaced the lion in 1973 because of its much wider presence across India than the Asiatic lion. Even so, the tiger is hard to see: most safari visitors do not see one, and that is normal. The peafowl is usually heard before it is seen: a loud rising call from a roof or a tree, most often before rain. The banyan is a tree that becomes a wood: supported by its own prop roots, an old banyan keeps spreading, which is why it is thought of as immortal and its roots as a picture of unity.

The lotus case is a small lesson in how symbols work. It has been called the national flower for decades, even by officials and ministers, yet in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha on 10 July 2019 the government said that no notification on a 'national flower' had been issued, while the tiger and the peacock had been notified as national animal and bird. In culture it hardly matters: the lotus is regarded as sacred across Indian religious traditions.

Each state and union territory has its own set, usually an animal, a bird, a flower and a tree, and newer declarations have added butterflies (Karnataka chose the southern birdwing, India's largest butterfly, in 2017), fish (Kerala's pearl spot, karimeen) and fruit. Some choices repeat across borders: the Asian elephant is the state animal of both Karnataka and Kerala; khejri is the tree of Rajasthan and, as jammi, of Telangana; the flame of the forest (palash) is the flower of Uttar Pradesh and Chandigarh; the barasingha (swamp deer) is the animal of both Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

Some symbols tell a story about the place. Delhi's house sparrow is a bird whose numbers fell sharply in Indian cities in the 2000s. Rajasthan's dromedary camel is a working animal, kept and traded at livestock fairs. Karnataka's sandalwood is so valuable that felling it without permission is an offence under state forest law. For two states in detail, see Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh.