The
chital or
cheetal (
Axis axis), also known as
chital deer,
spotted deer or
axis deer, is a
deer which commonly inhabits wooded regions of
India,
Sri Lanka,
Nepal,
Bangladesh,
Bhutan, and in small numbers in Pakistan. The chital goes by various names in India, among which include:
chital horin in Bengali,
thith muwa in Sinhalese,
jinke in Kannada,
pulli maan in Tamil and Malayalam,
jinka in Telugu,
phutuki horin in Assamese,
haran/harin in Marathi, and
hiran in Hindi/Urdu (the latter two derived from
harina, the Sanskrit cognate for 'deer'). It is the most common deer species in Indian forests. The name chital comes from the Bengali word
chitral (চিত্রল)/
chitra (চিত্রা), which means "spotted" in Bengali (from the Sanskrit "chitra", "variegated" or "spotted"). The chital is
monotypic within the genus
Axis, but this genus has also included three species that now are placed in
Hyelaphus based on genetic evidence.
