Sant Gadge Baba Amravati University will be the lead institution, with other proposed sub-centres at the Wildlife Institute of India (Dehradun), Walchand College (Solapur) and Zoological Survey of India (Kolkata). The centres will document a comprehensive inventory of arachnids from protected areas.
A proposal for these taxonomy centres has been sent by G N Vankhede, professor and head of the zoology department at the Amravati University to the ministry of environment and forest, under the all-India Coordinated Program for Taxonomy (AICOPTAX) scheme.
Vankhede told TOI, "Arachnids research is a neglected field. The proposed centres will take up key species and they will be identified, particularly endemics, rare and range restricted, including their distribution and ecology, in order to provide for their protection for a long term." Read the full report here.
Source: Dipannita Das, TNN, Pune.
