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India has a lot to flex for its territorial diversity-lush green fields, ice-capped mountains, rocky plateaus, deeply forested regions, dusty deserts, salty marshes, and an intricate web of rivers. In this incredibly varied landscape, the door is open to the most unbelievable explorations of scientific discoveries. And this geography hasn’t disappointed anyone yet. Scientists have reported that a total of 378 new microbial species were discovered in India between 2008 and 2019, a significant number of discoveries in the ecological world. But these scientific breakthroughs are inconsequential. Though the ecologists recognize a large number of new microbial species every year (a peak of more than 50 species in 2016, the number began to decline rapidly, with only 10 new species reported so far this year), they are struggling to document their discoveries and have been given no respectable recognition by any Indian institution for their remarkable contribution to biological science. Stringent laws and lethargic bureaucratic control of the rules of the International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes (ICSP), over accreditation of newly discovered microbes has further derailed the evolving temperament of the new-age microbiologists.
The current rules of the code demands, while defining a new taxon, a viable stock of the representative culture should be available in at least two culture collections in two countries for unrestricted distribution. Surmounting further to the dismay, the Biological Diversity Act 2002 of India “prohibits any non-Indian from accessing biological resources of Indian origin for either research, commercial utilization, or even for bio-survey and bio-utilization without prior approval of the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA).” It thus presents the strangest dilemma in front of the scientists. Altogether the laws have made it a maze-run for the nomenclature of new discoveries unless the NBA approves the request. Many letters requesting access to the country’s biological resources are yet to be attended to. Right now, there are piles of mails awaiting approval at the hands of a bureaucratic committee.
For obvious reasons, this has frustrated a whole generation of microbiologists. The number of publications has visibly declined, with only six papers published in 2019 and so far only five in 2020, and we might see no new species descriptions in the coming years. Although the amendment to the law would consume years to come to effect, an immediate, temporary amendment to adhere to the needs of the present group of distressed scientists is much needed. Moreover, the need for a better understanding of the microbes, their structure and functions has never been as urgent as now. The legislative should wake up to the clarion call of the urgency to repair the deformed system.
In recent years, many scientists have come forward to resolve this stumbling block. Yogesh Shouche, a microbial taxonomist at National Centre for Cell Science, writes that the Russian model of ‘delegating’ some of the responsibilities of approval for culture distribution to the scientists, not the government officials. This might speed up the process and, probably, mend the prolonged problem. This would also open up opportunities for the researchers abroad to work with designated repositories.
The rules and laws are again an unfortunate testament to our varying respect for scientific knowledge. With so much noise in the microbial research, it is meaningless to hold them back just because of some very strict but useless laws. Though these rules might have been built around the notion of preserving the biodiversity of the region, the preservation would go fruitless if scientists find it hard to document species they discover. And with all that neglect to document our affluent biodiverse taxa, it would be a complete betrayal to the researchers who dedicate their lives to such endeavour.
By Abhay Majhi
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Abhay Majhi is an undergraduate student studying English Literature at St. Stephen’s College in New Delhi, India. He is keenly interested in international politics, history and science fiction and fantasy stories, and has been writing for over a year.