In what is being termed a testing error, CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad has allegedly erroneously certified cow skin as tiger skin, leading to questions about credibility of the tests. The test sample was sent from Chikkamagaluru district by the Karnataka Forest Department (KFD) to verify the genuinity of the skin that was seized.
For the test procedure, according to a document accessed by The Hindu, the DNA of the sample was isolated and subjected to PCR amplification with tiger specific cytochrome b primers to generate species specific molecular signature. The standard procedure established in the lab was followed to establish identity of the biological material. According to the result, species-specific PCR revealed the sample showed presence of tiger DNA.
The report said: “It is concluded that the sample is from tiger (Panthera tigris). While the sample was sent on September, 2022, the CCMB gave the certificate on May 16, 2023. The Forest Department was informed that it was cow skin painted to look like tiger skin to deceive the buyers. It is mandatory for the department to obtain certification either from CCMB or Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun. There are only two centres in India to certify the genuinity of the samples.”
After this fiasco, activist Sharat Babu wrote to BJP MP and animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi seeking her intervention. In his letter, he said: “CCMB has done it again. This time they have certified cattle skin (painted to look like a tiger) as genuine tiger skin.” Mr. Babu has been working with different law enforcement agencies in connection with wildlife artefacts and is a certified identifiers of artefacts. Mr. Babu recommended Ms. Gandhi to suggest the CCMB to change their methodology.
Ms. Gandhi, in a formal email to the director of CCMB, Vinay Kumar Nandicoori, on November 13 said: “This is a follow-up to my letter about your institute having mistaken cow skin for tiger skin. You must realise that the analysis made by your staff will have serious consequences in the world of wildlife poaching. Hence, you need better training and more responsibility. The entire country is dependent on your people and if they make mistakes - as they do all the time - it destroys many other investigations. Please change your sample collection method. First get photographs for morphological analysis and then go in for a DNA test. If you had looked at the picture of the cow skin first you would have seen what it was. But your people didn’t and they identified it wrongly. Your agency is necessary to achieve conviction and save wildlife.”
Mr. Nandicoori said that he had asked Ms. Gandhi to provide details about the specific sample as they can initiate investigation on the raw sample. “We receive many samples from across the country and unless details of the specific sample was shared with us, we cannot do anything.”
