The red panda is the state animal of which Indian state?

The correct answer is A, Rajasthan. The chinkara, also called the Indian gazelle, is the state animal of Rajasthan. It is a small antelope of dry scrub and desert that can survive long spells without drinking, which suits the Thar, and the Bishnoi community of western Rajasthan has protected it for centuries. Rajasthan later added the camel as its state animal in the domestic category, so the chinkara is the wild state animal.

Option B, Madhya Pradesh, has the barasingha or swamp deer as its state animal. Option C, Haryana, has the blackbuck, an antelope often confused with the chinkara but larger, with spiral horns and a dark coat in the male. Option D, Gujarat, has the Asiatic lion of the Gir forest, the only wild lion population in Asia. Pairing the animal with the landscape is the quickest way to get such questions right.

The correct answer is C, Jammu and Kashmir. The hangul or Kashmir stag is the only Asiatic subspecies of the red deer found in India, and it survives mainly in the Dachigam National Park near Srinagar. Its small and shrinking population is the reason it was chosen as the state animal, and it is listed in Schedule I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act.

Option A, Himachal Pradesh, has the snow leopard as its state animal and the western tragopan, called jujurana, as its state bird. Option B, Uttarakhand, has the alpine musk deer as its state animal and the Himalayan monal as its state bird. Option D, Sikkim, has the red panda as its state animal and the blood pheasant as its state bird. All four are Himalayan states, so the examiner relies on the candidate knowing the exact pair rather than the region.

The correct answer is B, Manipur. The sangai or Manipur brow-antlered deer is found only on the floating phumdi vegetation of Keibul Lamjao National Park in the southern part of Loktak Lake, the only floating national park in the world. It is called the dancing deer from the way it steps on the spongy phumdi, and it is the state animal of Manipur.

Option A, Assam, has the one-horned rhinoceros of Kaziranga as its state animal. Option C, Mizoram, has the serow, a goat antelope of steep hill forests. Option D, Nagaland, has the mithun, a semi-domesticated bovine that is also central to Naga social custom and is the state animal of Arunachal Pradesh as well. Linking the sangai to Loktak and Keibul Lamjao makes this pair hard to forget.

The correct answer is C, Rajasthan. The Great Indian Bustard, known in Rajasthan as the godawan, is one of the heaviest flying birds in the world and one of the most threatened. Its stronghold is the Desert National Park near Jaisalmer, and the state runs a captive breeding programme for it, which is why it was adopted as the state bird.

Option A, Gujarat, has the greater flamingo as its state bird, associated with the Rann of Kutch and Flamingo City. Option B, Maharashtra, has the hariyal or green imperial pigeon. Option D, Karnataka, has the Indian roller, which is also the state bird of Odisha and of Telangana, where it is called palapitta. Bustards do occur in small numbers in Gujarat and Maharashtra, which is what makes option A and option B tempting.

The correct answer is B, Tamil Nadu. The Nilgiri tahr, a stocky wild goat of the high grasslands and cliffs of the Western Ghats, is the state animal of Tamil Nadu. Its largest population is in the Eravikulam and Mukurthi areas of the Nilgiri and Anamalai hills, and the adult male, dark with a pale saddle, is called the saddleback.

Option A, Kerala, has the Indian elephant as its state animal and the great hornbill as its state bird, although the tahr is found in Kerala as well, which makes this the strongest distractor. Option C, Karnataka, has the Indian elephant as its state animal and sandalwood as its state tree. Option D, Andhra Pradesh, has the blackbuck as its state animal. Remember that a species found in several states can be the official symbol of only the state that declared it.