Aaranyak’s Wildlife Genetics Laboratory (WGL), the sole facility of its kind in Northeast India, has completed a decade of successful wildlife DNA forensic analysis services in Assam.
Over the past ten years, the laboratory has handled more than a hundred cases within Assam and several others from different states, significantly aiding in wildlife crime investigations across the region.
The WGL offers a comprehensive range of DNA analysis services. These include identifying wildlife species from morphologically indistinguishable biological materials, forensic individual matching through DNA fingerprinting of rhinos, elephants, tigers, and leopards, and parentage testing of captive elephant calves.
In 2012, Aaranyak’s WGL became the first laboratory globally to successfully utilise DNA fingerprinting for the individual identification of greater one-horned rhinos in the wild. This technique is now used for population estimation and forensic investigations.
The laboratory has also developed a genetic database of rhinos in India, enabling the identification of the origin of any rhino sample, such as confiscated horns, which provides crucial information for rhino-related crime investigations.
“Along with providing training and on-the-ground support for DNA sampling, we plan to keep supporting wildlife forensic DNA investigations in Assam and other northeastern states,” said Udayan Borthakur, Senior Scientist at Aaranyak and head of its Wildlife Genetics Division.
Borthakur also expressed gratitude to the Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change, the Government of India, the Assam government, and other state forest departments for their support in this field.
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Founded in 2008, the WGL was granted permission in 2009 by the Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change to collect biological samples from Scheduled I species under the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. Since then, the laboratory has been engaged in several major conservation genetic research projects on threatened wildlife species. In 2014, the Assam Forest Department approved WGL’s services for forensic DNA analysis and wildlife genetics within the state.
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