2020-08-17 Mon

Elephants are native to Nepal. Ever since 1982, the back of the 1,000-rupee note prominently featured an elephant. However, it is an African elephant.

When new banknotes were decided to be launched, a representative of the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation opposed the use of foreign animals on Nepali currency. A special photographer was hired for the purpose of getting a new elephant photo.

The Committee selected a pair of elephant twins named Ram and Lakshman. Nepal’s new 1,000-rupee banknote depicts twin Asian elephants, replacing the vignette of a single African elephant depicted on the previous note. The image above shows the old banknote with the African Elephant and the new banknote with twin Asian elephants.

The committee also changed other denominations with foreign animals, including swapping in a new swamp deer on the 20-rupee note; it also replaced a male with a snow leopard on the 50-rupee banknote and put two tigers instead of a single tiger on the 500-rupee issue.

Image Courtesy: coinworld.com