 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|Teaching & Research Laboratory|Forensic Laboratory|Veterinary Laboratory|
WII’s growing academic and research activities have been complemented by growing laboratory facilities. The small setup of WII laboratory in 1986 has now grown and diversified into three units viz. Teaching & Research, Forensic and Veterinary laboratories. The Teaching & Research laboratory was established to support teaching, training and research activities of the Institute. Laboratory practical and examinations for the Institute's various courses are conducted in the former, while in the latter, facilities are available for various analytical techniques. Initiatives have been taken in the laboratory to develop analytical procedures to identify animal species from the products received from various Government enforcement agencies for wildlife offence cases since 1987. Establishment of a molecular biology and genetics laboratory is also in the process.
Teaching & Research Laboratory :
The Teaching & Research laboratory was established to extend technical inputs in teaching, training and analytical fields to research projects and ongoing training programmes of the Institute. The laboratory is managed by a senior scientist and laboratory technicians.
Activities:
Teaching classes followed by practical for various ongoing courses of the Institute.
Demonstration and use of analytical and field equipment and their maintenance.
Provide technical inputs in field, which includes demonstration of various traps, camera traps, mist netting for birds, electric fence and radio telemetry.
Bird & animal capture and handling techniques.
Herbivore pellet and carnivore scat analysis.
Collection & preservation of biological materials.
Age and sex determination of animals.
Taxidermy, osteology and mammalian hair identification of mammals.
Analysis of animal tissue, plant, soil and water samples for various parameters (ADF, NDF, ADL, CF, chlorophyll, carotenoids, anthocyanin, OC, texture, pH, EC, TDS, Cl, CO3, HCO3, NH4-N, NO3-N, Total N, P, DO, BOD, COD, hardness, Al, As, Ca, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, Pb, Zn and OP pesticides).
Meteorological data collection and interpretation.
Training in above mentioned fields is also provided to researchers and students of other institutions on request.
Instrumentation Facilities:
- Basic laboratory equipment required for laboratory such as digital analytical balance, pH meter, conductivity meter, hot air oven, incubator, cyclotec grinding mill, hot plate, shaker etc.
- Ultra pure water purification system for providing ultra pure water required for various analyses.
- Wide ranges of sample preparation instrument like centrifuge, microwave digestion system, block digestion system and extraction units.
- The laboratory is equipped with various modern analytical instrument like UV-VIS spectrophotometer, High performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS), Flame photometer, Auto Nitrogen Analyzer, Fibre Analyzer and microscopes with computer & video interface.
- Automatic weather monitoring station for collection of metrological data.
- Wide range of field equipment such as water analysis field kit, camera, binoculars, spotting scope, altimeter, pedometer, densio-meter, camera traps, hip chain, capture nets, animal traps, radio telemetry equipment, meteorological instrument, immobilization equipment and their accessories, compass, laser range finder, lux meter, clinometer, digital balance, spring balance, etc.
Wildlife Institute of India has been receiving wildlife offence cases from various enforcement agencies since 1987. It was felt that enforcement of Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act (1972) is often hampered due to the lack of reference materials and methods necessary to identify the animal and plant species in various wildlife offence cases. Therefore, a need was felt for strengthening the Wildlife Forensic Capabilities so as to support the enforcement agencies in the proper implementation of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 in controlling the illegal wildlife trade.
A collaborative project between US Fish and Wildlife Services and Wildlife Institute of India was initiated in October 1995 to strengthen the Wildlife forensic capability at WII through Research and Development and then disseminating the knowledge to the various law enforcement agencies.
Wildlife Institute of India provided the logistic support as well as the work space for the forensic lab, while the infrastructure has been procured through Wildlife Forensic Project. The forensic laboratory became operational in January 1998.
Future Plan
Future plans for the Wildlife Forensic Lab are as follows:
- To standardize techniques for identification of species from meat samples based on serology, protein profiles and PCR based DNA techniques.
- To develop a computer programme for the identification of mammalian species from hair.
- To have a repository of reference material of the important mammals that are being traded in the Indian sub-continent.
- To prepare protocols for receiving and dispatch of the evidence of biological samples for forensic examinations.
- To prepare a user friendly manual on the wildlife forensics for the various law enforcement agencies.
- To disseminate the acquired knowledge to the users i.e. agencies dealing in curbing the illegal wildlife trade.
- To do Research and Development (R&D) work on the newer techniques in the wildlife forensic.
- To standardize techniques to identify plants and their parts in wildlife trade.
|Teaching & Research Laboratory|Forensic Laboratory|Veterinary Laboratory|
Copyright © 2003 Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun