According to Govinda Gajurel, member secretary of the Governing Board of Trustee at NTNC, introducing DNA barcode system in Nepal will offer a huge assistance in deterring the illegal trade on body parts of wild animals and rare plants.
"There have been many cases where people have managed to smuggle animal body parts and special plants by hiding their real identity. Faking animal parts will be impossible after bar code system is introduced," said Gajurel.
Under the DNA barcode system, sampled genetic materials will allow researchers to identity the species of an animal body part even if it is present in various forms. Once a sample is tested, every single detail related to the item will be revealed. It is a scientific technique that uses a short genetic marker in organism's DNA to ascertain its species, history and place of origin.
"Once the seized samples go through this testing, all ambiguities regarding its identity will be cleared up in seconds," said Manish Raj Pandey, Senior Conservation Officer at NTNC. "Bar coding is like giving identity to the specific animals and plants brought for testing," he further added.
According to Pandey, the task of bar coding samples of both plant and wild animals will start immediately after the initial phase of selecting specific species will be over in a few months.
"Bar code testing can reveal whether an elephant tusk or rhino horn is real or fake in no time," said Manish Raj Pandey, senior conservation officer at NTNC. "Many such tusks seized by police have been found to be fakes earlier, but it took time to confirm it."
The whole project of bar coding wildlife and plants in Nepal has been funded by the Smithsonian Institute of United States of America. Working under the mother project of the "Consortium for the Barcode of Life," Nepal is the fifth participant country besides South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Mexico.
"Although we wish to bring all species under bar coding standards, we have decided to take only 200 species for now. We assure to complete the preparation of DNA bar coding for 50 species and even establish a separate library for these recorded samples by early 2017," said Pandey.
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