The Centre has no plans to enact any law declaring cows as the national animal, Union Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying S P Singh Baghel told Parliament on Tuesday.
In his written reply to a question by senior BJP leader and former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat in Lok Sabha, Baghel said: "No, Sir. As per Article 246(3) of the Constitution, under the distribution of legislative powers between the Union and the States, the preservation of animals is a matter on which the State legislature has exclusive powers to legislate."
The minister said the central government has been implementing the Rashtriya Gokul Mission since December 2014 to support and strengthen initiatives undertaken by states and Union Territories for the promotion, protection, and rearing of cows.
On milk production, Baghel informed the House that cow milk contributed 53.12 per cent of the country's total milk production of 239.30 million tonnes in 2024, while buffalo milk accounted for 43.62 per cent.
The Union Minister also highlighted that the government of India, after a period of absence from official records of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), reinstated the Tiger and Peacock as the 'National Animal' and 'National Bird' on May 30, 2011.
“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 said.
