Genome sequencing of a lion cub seized in Kolkata during an alleged smuggling attempt more than two years ago has thrown up an interesting challenge to legally prosecute the case in court of law as the cub is identified as hybrid and shared its ancestry from Asiatic and African lion.
In June 2019, officials of the West Bengal Forest Department and Wildlife Crime Control Bureau seized it from Belghoria Expressway in Kolkata. Three persons were arrested for smuggling it and are facing trial in the North 24 Parganas.
The rescued cub was later transferred to the Alipore Zoological Garden, Kolkata, and the State Zoo Authority approached the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) for determining its identity — whether it was of African or Asiatic origin.
A paper titled “Africanor Asiatic origin? Genome analyses solved the mystery of the hybrid origin of the rescued lion cub’”published by the scientists of the ZSI has come out with the conclusion that the lion cub shared ancestry with bothAsiatic and African lion.
“Phylogenetic assessment based on complete mitogenome assigned rescued lion cub with African lion (Panthera leo leo). However, the TSPY gene of the Y chromosome established that the lion cub shared its paternal lineage from Asiatic lion (Panthera leo persica). With the use of maternally and paternally inherited markers, we conclude a hybrid origin of the rescued lion cub which shared ancestry from both Asiatic as well as African lion,” the publication states.
ZSI scientist Mukesh Thakur, who led the study, said it has opened new avenues as far as tracing the ancestry of seized animals is concerned. He saidit is important to investigate the seized material with multiple marker systems and preferably with mitochondrial, autosomaland paternal markers at least in cases where such ambiguity is suspected.
Dr. Thakur said there are provisions for punishment under The Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 when it concerns illegal trafficking of animals found in the country, in this case Asiatic lion, but the law is not very clear and there is no definition of hybrid as of date.
The article has been co-authored by ZSI Director Dhriti Banerjee, Lalit Kumar Sharma and Abhishek Singh.The developments have raised questions also on whether the animal has been born in captivity or in the wild and what is the source of its origin. Dr. Banerjee said the ZSI has been actively contributing to the law enforcement agencies through providing timely research advisory, technical support and scientists from the ZSI have often appeared in court to support conviction as and when required.
Poaching and smuggling of wildlife pose a challenge for investigating agencies and every year thousands of animals and birds are killed or smuggled. Smuggling of exotic animals and birds are mostly for keeping as pets. Genome sequencing and DNA analysis are used to ascertain the identity of the species.
