Chhattisgarh's wild buffalo clone, claimed to be 'first-ever' 11 years back, embroils in scepticism
The project was executed by the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Karnal, which claimed to have cloned the wild buffalo for the first time in the country through the 'Hand-guided Cloning Technique' at ICAR-NDRI in December 2014.
The clone appears like a Murrah buffalo (domestic) breed, and notably the Wild buffalo is listed under Schedule 1 of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act.
Amid the demand by wildlife enthusiasts of DeepAsha's DNA report, the state forest department decided to raise a query to the Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) asking, 'Is it technically possible to create xerox copy of wild buffalo in a cloning method where ovaries (that produces oocyte/egg cells) for cloning is sourced from slaughter house?'
The response given to the department by CCMB in March this year that it was 'not possible', was acquired under the Right to Information.
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