Miffed with the ban on animal dissection, Delhi University has urged the UGC and Environment Ministry to reconsider the decision, saying it is reducing zoology into a "dead discipline".
"We have written to 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 where in students are just reading theory and are unable to do any practical experiments," Neeta Sehgal, Head of DU's Zoology department has said in a letter.
In 2011, the University Grants Commission (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 UGC had instructed all universities to ban dissection of animals for academic purposes at both the undergraduate and post-graduate levels.
"No animal from any species shall be dissected, either by teachers or students for any purpose," the UGC notification had said.
"It is 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," Sehgal said.
"And dissection doesn't mean we simply cut an animal into two halves and study it. It is a dirty word to be used. There is a difference between post mortem and a surgery too," she added.
