GM chicken experiment terminated

A central government committee has taken action against a Hyderabad institute for carrying out an experiment to create India's first genetically modified chickens in violation of government rules. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Aug 17, 2010, 24:39:58 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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A central government committee has taken action against a Hyderabad institute for carrying out an experiment to create India's first genetically modified (GM) chickens in violation of government rules.

When a government panel found the experiment was conducted without proper bio-safety conditions, it ordered the destruction of the GM chickens and has pressed for further action against the institute.

The Directorate of Poultry, Hyderabad had carried out a pilot study to derive better quality and disease-resistant chickens by inserting into them green fluorescent protein — a new gene — through sperm meditation.

However, India's GM regulator Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) was told in June this year that the experiment was violating bio-safety conditions.

The GEAC constituted a panel headed by its co-chair Dr Arjula Reddy to verify the claims. The panel found the institute had not appointed a Biosafety Committee — mandatory for GM experiments in India.

In all, 263 chicks were hatched for the experiment of which 16 were found positive for the gene protein. Of these, seven died earlier, and the committee ordered the remaining nine — seven males and two females — be destroyed by autoclaving.

"It was done to ensure these chickens do not become hazardous for other poultry…" said a committee member.

The committee also got the tissues and biological samples — preserved for future experiments — destroyed.

"The institute has given assurance that all activities in this regard have been stopped and all the regulations stipulated under the Environment Protection Act, 1986 will be strictly complied with," said the minutes of a July 30 GEAC meeting.

The GEAC concluded the institute was liable for punishment under EPA which stipulated imprisonment of up to five years and fine of up to Rs one lakh.

The panel has also asked Indian Council for Agriculture Research to take action against the institute.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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