Karnataka State Insect and State Amphibian: Apis cerana, the Malabar Tree Toad and the State's Symbols

Karnataka's New State Symbols: The May 2026 Announcement

Apis cerana and the Malabar Tree Toad on Biodiversity Day

Karnataka's Forest and Environment Minister, Eshwar Khandre, said on 22 May 2026 that the process is under way to declare Apis cerana, the Asiatic honey bee, as the State insect and the Malabar tree toad as the State amphibian, the first insect and the first amphibian among Karnataka's State symbols. He made the announcement at the State's event for the International Day for Biological Diversity, noting that many States keep their own bird, animal and tree to stress the importance of conserving biodiversity.

• Heritage sites: At the same event the Minister listed the Nallur Tamarind Grove near Devanahalli, the Gandhi Krishi Vignana Kendra (GKVK) campus, Hogrekan in Chikkamagaluru district, Ambaragudda in Sagara taluk and the Mamadapura site in Vijayapura district as Biodiversity Heritage Sites. These sites are already on Karnataka's list of heritage sites; they are not new ones.
• Conflict with wildlife: He said elephant and tiger corridors were being restored to reduce human-animal conflict, which was rising as corridors changed and forests shrank.
• Encroachment: About 12,204 acres of encroached forest land had been cleared in the previous three years.

State Symbols of Karnataka: State Bird, State Animal, Tree and Flower

Karnataka's State animal is the Asian elephant, its State bird the Indian roller and its State tree sandalwood. The new insect and amphibian join seven natural symbols the State already has.

Karnataka was the third State to name a State butterfly, after Maharashtra in 2015 and Uttarakhand in 2016. Its State fish and butterfly, like the new toad, are species of the Western Ghats.

Apis cerana: The Asiatic Honey Bee as Karnataka's State Insect

Apis cerana indica and the Western Honey Bee Compared

Apis cerana, the eastern or Asiatic honey bee, is a honey bee native to South, Southeast and East Asia. It is a close relative of the western honey bee, Apis mellifera, and the two are in the same subgenus, but they are separate species, since mating between them produces no offspring.

The name Apis cerana indica, the Indian honey bee, is an older term for the population of southern India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh; all Asian hive bees are now called Apis cerana. In Karnataka the bee pollinates the Neelakurinji flowers that blossom on the Western Ghats hills of Chikkamagaluru district.

• Nest: Like Apis mellifera, it builds several combs inside a cavity such as a tree hollow, with a small entrance; the giant honey bees, Apis dorsata and Apis laboriosa, build a single comb in the open.
• Colony: About 6,000 to 7,000 workers, against 50,000 or more for Apis mellifera.
• Defence: It co-evolved with the Varroa mite and grooms more carefully, which stops the mite from devastating its colonies; in Japan, colonies of the bee kill an invading giant hornet by surrounding it and raising the heat to 47 °C.
• Elsewhere: Outside its range it can be a pest; Australia gave up trying to eradicate it in 2011.

Pollination is an ecosystem service on which most flowering plants depend. Without pollinators, among them bees, bumblebees, birds and bats, many plants cannot set fruit or seed, and choosing a native pollinator as a State symbol draws attention to that service.

Malabar Tree Toad: Karnataka's State Amphibian

Malabar Tree Toad, an Endemic of the Western Ghats

The Malabar tree toad (Pedostibes tuberculosus), also called the warty Asian tree toad, lives in the forests of the Western Ghats in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, at about 250 m to over 1,000 m. It is small, about 3.6 to 3.85 cm long, and is the only species of its genus.

The toad lives in trees. Adults move through the leaf litter and climb at night, and the species is found in wet tree hollows and leaf bases that hold water, often beside streams. It breeds only at the start of the monsoon rains.

• Status: Once listed as Endangered, it is now Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessed in 2020).
• Threats: Habitat loss and fragmentation from farms, roads and dams; vehicles kill toads that gather to breed; changes in rainfall could harm a species that breeds with the first monsoon rains.
• Citizen science: The Mapping Malabar Tree Toad project in the Western Ghats asks the public to record where the toad is seen.

The choice also says something about the Western Ghats. They hold more species of amphibians than the Eastern Ghats, and many are found nowhere else; naming an endemic toad as a State symbol draws attention to that endemism. Large parts of the Ghats are also proposed as ecologically sensitive areas.

Biodiversity Heritage Sites in Karnataka Under the Biological Diversity Act

Biodiversity Heritage Sites Under Section 37 of the Act

A Biodiversity Heritage Site is an area of biodiversity importance that a State government notifies, in consultation with local bodies, under Section 37 of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002. Such areas are unique and fragile ecosystems, and may be on land, on the coast, in inland waters or in the sea.

The Act gives effect in India to the Convention on Biological Diversity. It defines biodiversity as the variability among living organisms and the ecological complexes of which they are part, and it works through three tiers.

• National Biodiversity Authority: A statutory body set up in 2003, headquartered in Chennai, which advises the government, including on the selection of heritage sites.
• State Biodiversity Boards: Set up in 28 States, Karnataka among them.
• Biodiversity Management Committees: One for each local body.

The Act also seeks fair and equitable sharing of the benefits that arise from the use of biological resources and knowledge.

Biodiversity Heritage Sites in Karnataka: Nallur, Hogrekan, GKVK

Karnataka has at least 14 Biodiversity Heritage Sites, the five the Minister named in May 2026 among them.

The other Karnataka sites on the list range from Mundigekere lake, a bird site near Sirsi, to hills such as Antaragange Betta in Kolar, a perennial water source, and Mahima Ranga Betta, a green space in Bengaluru.

Biodiversity Hotspots, Endemism and Pollinators

Western Ghats Hotspot and India's Biodiversity

India has only 2.4 per cent of the world's land area but 8.1 per cent of its recorded species, which makes it one of the 12 megadiverse countries. Diversity is not even across the country. The tropics hold more species than colder regions, and the Western Ghats, for instance, have more amphibian species than the Eastern Ghats.

Biodiversity hotspots are regions with very high species richness and a high degree of endemism, species found nowhere else, that are also losing habitat fast. Twenty-five were identified at first, nine were added to make 34, and two more since 2011 bring the count to 36. Three cover India's richest regions: The Western Ghats and Sri Lanka, Indo-Burma and the Himalaya. The Nicobar Islands also fall within a fourth, Sundaland, so India is often counted in four hotspots.

• Not only tropical: The list includes the Mediterranean Basin, the California Floristic Province, the Caucasus and the Mountains of Central Asia.
• Red List: The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, also called the Red Data Book, founded in 1964, records the conservation status and extinction risk of species.

Karnataka's Symbols and Biodiversity Conservation

State Symbols, Heritage Sites and Conservation: The Key Links

The two new symbols tie the State's identity to the conservation of its biodiversity.

• Symbols: Apis cerana and the Malabar tree toad, which is Least Concern, join the elephant, the Indian roller and sandalwood among Karnataka's symbols.
• Concepts: Endemism, hotspots and their criteria, pollination as an ecosystem service and the IUCN Red List explain why the two species were chosen.
• Law: The State's heritage sites are notified under Section 37 of the Biological Diversity Act, which also sets up the National Biodiversity Authority, the State boards and the local committees.