Forest dept, ZSI identify species from raw meat using DNA forensics

Kolkata: In a major stride towards proper implementation of Wildlife Protection Act to combat illegal trade of wildlife, the state Forest department with the assistance of Zoological Survey of India's (ZSI) has identified species even from raw meat that had lost its morphological identity using

DNA forensics.

The case dates back to November 2017 when ZSI had received a confiscated material, which appeared to be chopped raw meat with no intact morphological identity. The meat was semi-cooked.

The raw meat was recovered from a person at Falta in North 24-Parganas by the state Forest Department after he uploaded pictures on social media, displaying his involvement in cooking and eating animal meat — suspected to be of wildlife origin. The seized meat that was handed over to ZSI for identification was semi-cooked and mixed with spices.

On homology search through the use of DNA technology, some scientists from ZSI found the confiscated material to be of Asian Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus), which is a scheduled species (Schedule II) and protected under Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972.

The findings have already been published in a noted Science journal. ZSI director Kailash Chandra and scientists Avijit Ghosh, Sambadeb Basu, Hiren Khatri, Mukesh Thakur have been involved in the study.

There have been instances where confiscated materials have been altered and fabricated so much that their morphological identification often got difficult.

However, in the last few years, DNA technology has revolutionised species identification in forensic investigations and shown its power in the firm identification of those fabricated materials.

"We will submit the findings of ZSI's report along with all the details before the court for prosecution of the person," said Ravikant Sinha, state Chief Wildlife Warden.

A senior official of the state Forest department said poaching of wildlife for local consumption and commercial purposes is a major threat to the world's biodiversity, which has resulted in the extirpation of numerous species at the local or regional scale.

"The current study has generated new hope by showing that documenting species identification is possible even for raw meat for reliable assessment of wildlife forensic investigations," the

official added.