Lok Sabha Question No. 3008 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-08-06
Subject: Biodiversity Digital Sequence Information
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT,  FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: Prataprao  Jadhav, Shrirang Appa Barne, Manoj Kumar Tiwari, Bidyut Baran Mahato, Sudheer Gupta, Chandra Sekhar Sahu, Sanjay Sadashivrao Mandlik, Subrata Pathak

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3008

TO BE ANSWERED ON 06.08.2021

## Biodiversity Digital Sequence Information

3008. SHRI PRATAPRAO JADHAV:

SHRI SHRIRANG APPA BARNE:

SHRI MANOJ TIWARI:

SHRI BIDYUT BARAN MAHATO:

SHRI SUDHEER GUPTA:

SHRI CHANDRA SEKHAR SAHU:

SHRI SANJAY SADASHIVRAO MANDLIK:

SHRI SUBRAT PATHAK:

Will  the  Minister  of  ENVIRONMENT,  FOREST  AND  CLIMATE  CHANGE  be  pleased  to state:

- (a)  whether Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) has signed any Memorandum of Understanding with not-for-profit organizations/universities for strengthening of Biodiversity Digital Sequence Information and if so, the details thereof;
- (b)  whether  ZSI  has  been  enriching  the  information  on  DNA  barcodes  and  solving taxonomic queries in the country and if so, the details thereof;
- (c)  the  details  of  the  funds  allocated,  released  and  utilized  by  ZSI during  each  of  the  last three years and the current year;
- (d)  whether  ZSI has been facing many challenges while performing their mandates during the period of COVID-19 lockdown; and
- (e) if so, the details thereof and the corrective/remedial action taken by the Government in this regard?

## ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE (SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY)

(a)Yes,  Zoological  Survey  of  India  (ZSI)  under  Ministry  of  Environment,  Forest  and Climate  Change  has  signed a  Memorandum  of  Understanding (MoU)  with  International Barcode of Life (iBOL) Corporation, Canada in June 2020 for strengthening of Biodiversity Digital Sequence Information.

- (b) Yes, ZSI has been enriching the information on DNA barcodes and solving taxonomic queries in the country. ZSI has generated 7,186 DNA barcodes as on 31 st March 2021 which are available in the public domain 'The Barcode of Life Data System (BOLD)'.

ZSI  has  also  contributed  over  1000  sequences  to  National  Centre  for  Biotechnology information  (NCBI)  as  of  March  2021.  Further, ZSI  through  its  DNA  barcoding  and generating  digital  sequences  information  has  solved  many  taxonomic  disparities.  ZSI identified  the  existence  of  two  phylogenetic  species  of  red  panda,  up-scaling  pangolin conservation, allopatric speciation in Himalayan ibex among others.It has also validated two Mahseer fishes, produced world's largest DNA barcode library for thrips (insecta), India's largest  DNA  barcode  library  for  spiders,  provided  DNA  Barcoding  evidence  for  invasive Pest thrips, Thripsparvispinus (Thripidae: Thysanoptera), from India,  revealed  DNA barcode evidence for host associated genetic diversity of 'tea Mosquito Bug' Helopeltistheivora (Miridae: Heteroptera) from India etc.

- (c)  The details of funds allocated, released and utilised during the past three years and the current year in ZSI are as under:

| Financial Year   |   B.E. (in crores) | R.E. (in crores)   | Utilised fund (in crores)   |
|------------------|--------------------|--------------------|-----------------------------|
| 2018-19          |              66.54 | 67.80              | 67.30                       |
| 2019-20          |              72    | 71.64              | 71.43                       |
| 2020-21          |              72    | 60.30              | 60.12                       |
| 2021-22          |              67    | -                  | 22.46 (as on 15.07.2021)    |

(d)  &  (e)  Yes.  Due  to  curtailment  of  funds,  activities  under  the  primary  and  secondary objectives  of  ZSI  have  suffered,  especially  field  surveys  for  faunal  diversity  and  status surveys of threatened species as well as training and capacity building activities including molecular systematics work.

However,  in  spite  of  the  pandemic,  following  the  Covid  protocol,  ZSI  has  initiated field  surveys  for the  year 2021-22. More than 20 field surveys have been carried out and faunal  collections  have  been  made  from  eight  Protected  Areas  of  the  country.  As  part  of training  and  capacity  building,  10  JRFs  have  been  recruited  recently  during  May  2021, exclusively to train them through working in various research programmes of ZSI.

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