Forensic Science Lab in Rohini to test animal DNA, help solve wildlife-related crime

The new facility will be used for conducting scientific procedures to examine, identify, and compare evidence from crime scenes and link those with a suspect and a victim, officials said.Forensic Science Laboratory Director Deepa Verma said the facilty has started a new unit for testing the animal DNA and the types of evidence analysed include any part of an animal including blood and tissue samples, bones contents.Our experts shall analyses DNA to provide information about the identity of a sample.

In a step towards probing wildlife-related crime, the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) at Rohini here will now be able to test animal DNA samples with two high-tech machines at its newly started facility.

Officials at FSL said on Sunday that they have recently procured two machines -- an automate DNA extraction instrument and a Real-Time PCR instrument based on mitochondrial DNA technology.

Wildlife forensics is a relatively new field of criminal investigation. The new facility will be used for conducting scientific procedures to examine, identify, and compare evidence from crime scenes and link those with a suspect and a victim, officials said.

Forensic Science Laboratory Director Deepa Verma said the facilty has started a new unit for testing the animal DNA and the types of evidence analysed include any part of an animal including blood and tissue samples, bones contents.

''Our experts shall analyses DNA to provide information about the identity of a sample. Some answers that DNA tests may provide include identification, characterization of the relationships between animals and evaluation of two different samples in order to determine if they originated from the same animal,'' she said.

Incharge Crime Scene Examination of FSL Sanjeev Gupta said Animal evidence can be an important element in a case when used to establish an association between a crime scene and a suspect or in crimes involving a specific animal.

This facility will help the wildlife forensic scientists to further examine cases of poaching and other crimes, officials said.

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