Identifying species of snakes is essential

Hyderabad: For cases of venom extraction to be tried in courts, it is essential to identify the species of snake from which it was taken. Some species are on the scheduled list under the wildlife Act, and it is a crime to harm them. The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology’s Laboratory for Conservation of Endangered Species uses DNA-based identification methods to identify the species from samples sent by the courts.

LaCONES genetic scientists Chandra S. Singh, Ajay Gaur, Ara Sreenivas and Lalji Singh, in their research paper, ‘Species Identification from Dried Snake Venom’, published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, said, “In a case forwarded by the Judicial I Class Magistrate, Kannur Division, Kerala, the analysis revealed that the venom was extracted from an Indian cobra (Naja Naja). On the basis of this report, the forwarding authority booked a case against the accused for illegal hunting of an endangered venomous snake and smuggling of its venom. This approach has immense potential for rapid identification of endangered snake species. This is also the first report of DNA isolation from dried snake venom for species identification.”

According to Traffic, the wildlife trade monitoring network, snake venom is the most sought after smuggled good after ivory in the international market. Enforcement agencies find it difficult to identify the species of snake from the dried snake venom they seize to ascertain whether it is from an endangered species. LaCONES is playing a key role in assisting in this identification.