What is the National Heritage Animal of India?

What is the National Heritage Animal of India?

The Elephant is the official National Heritage Animal of India. It was declared in 2010. The scientific name of the Elephant is Elephas maximus. Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka in South Asia is the famous home of Elephants. Generally, the Elephant can divide into two species, one of which is Asian and the other is African.

The Asian species have four sub-species like Sri Lankan, Indian, Bornean, and Sumatran. The Elephant is the largest land mammal in the world and having a lot of cultural and religious aspects. Indian National Heritage Animal, Elephant has separate names of both male and female. They are identified as; the females are called “cow.” The males are known as a bull, and the babies name the calf. The elephants have played a significant role in manual labor, war, royal iconography, and the tourism industry.

For thousands of years, elephants were captured and trained to be a form of transport and heavy labor. At the time when logging was legal in India, the elephant hauled heavy logs through forests, which have created a lot of jobs for Laos’s people. According to the report, India is home to the second-highest number of elephants in Asia. There are 21 venues housing over 500 elephants for the entertainment of people.

 

National Heritage Animal of India Facts

  • Common Name: Elephant
  • Scientific Name: Elephas maximus
  • Color: They are usually grey in color, and maybe wearing a veil of soil due to dusting and wallowing.
  • Length: Length of body and head including trunk is 5.5–6.5 m
  • Weight: Males average weight is 4 t and female’s average weight is 2.7 t
  • Height: The height of males is 2.75 m while the females are 2.4 m.
  • Diet: Elephants eat plants and plant matter in order to gain all of the nutrients that they need to survive. They eat grasses, roots, fruit, and bark. They use their tusks to pull the bark from trees and dig roots out of the ground. Elephants also need plenty of water, which may around 100 liters.
  • Cubs: The female elephant gives birth to one calf after a gestation period of 18–22 months, occasionally it may twins.
  • Behavior: The Asian elephant follows strict migration routes that by the monsoon season. The eldest elephant of the herd is responsible for remembering the migration route of its herd. Adult females and calves may move about together as groups, but adult males disperse from their mothers upon reaching adolescence. Bull elephants may be solitary or form temporary ‘bachelor groups.
  • Lifespan: 65 – 75 years

The Elephant has many mythological values. The white elephants are rare and significant. They symbolize royalty in India and Burma, where it is also treated as a symbol of good luck. The Hindus worship Ganesha, a deity having a human form and the head of an elephant. Popularly known as Ganapati, which is one of the most cherished and worshiped deities amongst the Hindus. Lord Ganesha’s role in Hindu theology states him to be the remover of all obstacles.

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