PTI — August 10, 2026
India has presented five young Indian peafowl to the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG), reviving a long‑standing custom of providing birds to the park that surrounds the UN’s European headquarters.
At a ceremony on August 7, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Arindam Bagchi, formally handed the birds to UNOG Director‑General Tatiana Valovaya. The group includes four blue peafowl and one rare white‑feathered male, a combination that echoes the blue and white colours associated with the United Nations.
The Indian mission described the peacock as a national symbol of grace, beauty and resilience, and said the donation underlines India’s commitment to biodiversity conservation and environmental stewardship as well as to multilateral cooperation.
Valovaya thanked the Indian government for the contribution, and Tobias Blaha, director of Geneva’s Bioparc zoo, said the site offers an excellent habitat for the birds. The Bioparc will collaborate with UN staff to care for the peafowl during their acclimation period.
The new arrivals will initially be kept in an enclosed area for roughly three months before being allowed to roam freely in Ariana Park, the 46‑hectare green space that hosts the League of Nations and later the UN offices. Peafowl have been a feature of the park for more than a century, a tradition that predates both the League and the United Nations.
India’s donation is the second known gift of peacocks to UNOG; in 1981, then‑prime minister Indira Gandhi sent a breeding pair from the Delhi Zoo. Many of the birds currently seen in Ariana Park were donated in 1997 by a zoo in Japan.
By adding to the park’s fauna, the Indian mission said, the gesture enhances the biodiversity of the UN premises and reaffirms India’s long‑standing partnership with the United Nations.