UGC asks varsities to register with MoEF panel to check animal dissection

Varsities running courses in Life Sciences and Zoology and having facilities for animal dissection have been asked by the UGC to register themselves with Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals (CPCSEA) to ensure that rules are not violated.
The committee working under the supervision of Ministry of Environment is a regulatory body facilitating registration of establishments conducting animal experimentation or breeding of animals for this purpose.
Its other functions include approval of Animal House facilities on the basis of inspection, permission for conducting experiments involving use of animals, recommendation for import of animals for use in experiments and action against establishments in case of established violation of any legal norm/stipulation.

"I am to inform you that the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate change has developed the website of CPCSEA. You are requested to kindly register with the same.
"Necessary instructions may also be issued to all colleges affiliated to your university in this regard," UGC secretary JS Sandhu said in a communication to Vice Chancellors of all universities.
In 2011, 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 commission had instructed all universities to ban dissection of animals for academic purposes at both the undergraduate and post-graduate levels.

The UGC had said that non-animal methods - including computer simulations, interactive CD-ROMs, films and lifelike models - can be used to teach anatomy and complex biological processes, which are better than cruel, archaic animal laboratories processes.
Educational institutions found violating the order can now be booked under the Wildlife Protection Act and also the Prevention of Cruelty Against Animals Act, the UGC had warned.
Miffed with the ban, Delhi University had earlier this year urged the UGC and MoEF to reconsider the decision, saying it is reducing zoology into a "dead discipline".