Roaches, frogs may escape the scalpel in bio practicals
Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal has set up an expert panel at the University Grants Commission which after reviewing the options available may decide the future course of action next month.
Set up in January, the committee wrote to universities seeking suggestions on how biology can accurately be taught without dissecting frogs, cockroaches and earthworm in lower standards and mice or rabbits in higher education.
“The responses from the universities are being complied. We will examine it next month. We have received some suggestions but I cannot disclose them,” Sunil Chumber, sub-dean (academic) at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences here told Deccan Herald.
Many animal activists claim that there are computer-aided tools that can do away with dissection and some Indian universities have already taken steps to do away with dissection.
“At lower level (schools) dissection can be dispensed with, but at higher knowledge level, animal sacrifices have to be there. No amount of computer model can replace the knowledge a student gains by conducting the dissection first hand,” said Sandip Basu, former director of the National Institute of Immunology here.
A committee headed by Bangalore University Vice-Chancellor H A Ranganath met in January and sought suggestions from the universities.
Besides Chumber, the panel also includes S Balasubramanian, director of DRDO centre for life sciences at Bharathiar University in Coimbatore, Roop Lal from Delhi University zoology department and a nominee of the director-general of Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.