The Delhi University has asked the University Grants Commission (UGC) and Union environment ministry to reconsider the decision to ban animal dissection, saying it has reducing zoology into a “dead discipline”.
A letter in this regard has been sent by the head of DU’s zoology department Neeta Sehgal.
“We have written to (the) UGC requesting it to reconsider the decision and limit the ban to just endangered animals. Zoology is being reduced into a dead discipline because of the ban its students are just reading theory and are unable to do any practical experiments,” said Prof. Sehgal.
In 2011, the UGC had imposed a partial ban on animal dissection and directed all universities and colleges to stop experimentation on animals for training purposes for zoology and life sciences at the undergraduate level. However, last year the UGC instructed all universities to ban dissection of animals for academic purposes at both the undergraduate and post-graduate levels. Prof. Sehgal said that it was ironical that we can kill a cockroach using a repellant at home but cannot pin the same in a laboratory to understand its anatomy.
“Concerning the maintenance of ecology, we have also raised the same with the ministry of environment and forests to revoke the ban. And dissection doesn’t mean we simply cut an animal into two halves and study it.”
A letter in this regard has been sent by the head of DU’s zoology department Neeta Sehgal.
“We have written to (the) UGC requesting it to reconsider the decision and limit the ban to just endangered animals. Zoology is being reduced into a dead discipline because of the ban its students are just reading theory and are unable to do any practical experiments,” said Prof. Sehgal.
In 2011, the UGC had imposed a partial ban on animal dissection and directed all universities and colleges to stop experimentation on animals for training purposes for zoology and life sciences at the undergraduate level. However, last year the UGC instructed all universities to ban dissection of animals for academic purposes at both the undergraduate and post-graduate levels. Prof. Sehgal said that it was ironical that we can kill a cockroach using a repellant at home but cannot pin the same in a laboratory to understand its anatomy.
“Concerning the maintenance of ecology, we have also raised the same with the ministry of environment and forests to revoke the ban. And dissection doesn’t mean we simply cut an animal into two halves and study it.”
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