Union Culture Minister G Kishan Reddy told the Parliament on Monday that the national animal of India is the tiger, and the government has no plans to recognise the cow as the national animal.

Reddy was replying to questions raised by BJP MP Bhagirath Choudhary, who asked the Culture Ministry whether the Centre intends to recognise Gaumata (cow), an integral part of Indian culture, as a national animal, considering protection and revival of the Indian and Sanatan culture by bringing a legislation in Parliament.

To that, Reddy said that the Government of India had notified the Tiger and Peacock as ‘National Animal’ and ‘National Bird’, respectively, and that both these had been included in the Schedule-I animals of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.

“Government of India were not forthcoming in the official records of MoEF&CC for quite some time, the Ministry renotified Tiger and Peacock as ‘National Animal’ and National Bird’, respectively, on 30th May 2011,” he added.

On a specific question of whether the high Courts of Allahabad and Jaipur had ordered and commented to expedite the process of declaring the Gaumata (cow) as a national animal, Reddy noted that these matters rested in the hands of the state’s legislative authorities.