India Gifts Five Peacocks to UN Geneva on August 10, 2026

Key facts

• India donated five Indian peacocks, including a rare white-feathered male, to the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG).
• The birds were formally handed over by India's Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Arindam Bagchi, to UNOG Director-General Tatiana Valovaya.
• This is the second time India has presented peacocks to UNOG; in 1981, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had sent a breeding pair from Delhi Zoo to UNOG.
• The care of the peacocks will be overseen by Geneva Bioparc zoo along with UN staff.
• The peacocks will first stay in an enclosed habitat for around three months before being allowed to roam freely in Ariana Park.
• Ariana Park, where the UN's European headquarters is located, is a 46-hectare park in Geneva.
• Peacocks have been part of Ariana Park for more than a century, with the tradition going back to Gustave Revilliod, who bequeathed the estate to the city of Geneva in 1890.
• Most of the birds currently in Ariana Park were donated to UNOG in 1997 by a zoo in Japan.