Indian scientists pressured to withdraw research amid geopolitical backlash

In a spillover of the continued border dispute between India and China, Indian scientists have been pressured to withdraw a paper in a global peer-reviewed journal printed from China on the grounds that it couldn’t point out Arunachal Pradesh.

Indian scientists Mukesh Thakur, Lalit Kumar Sharma, and Avijit Ghosh have been pressured to withdraw a paper on the White-Cheeked Macaque (Macaca leucogenys) on the grounds that it couldn’t point out Arunachal Pradesh because the sampling web site. The Chinese authorities contested the inclusion of Arunachal Pradesh within the research, claiming it didn’t align with their outlined map.

The paper ‘Two Y chromosome lineages in White-Cheeked Macaque (Macaca leucogenys)’ was accepted on February 14, 2023, and printed on-line on April 5, 2023, within the journal Wildlife Letters.

The journal Wildlife Letters is a lately launched worldwide peer-reviewed journal and is printed from Northeast Forestry University in China.

“This is nothing but scientific terrorism. Since April 2023, I have exchanged several emails with the journal authorities relating to the paper. I have taken strong stand that I cannot replace Arunachal Pradesh and was forced to withdraw the paper in the last week of October,” Mukesh Thakur, scientist and Officer-in-Charge, Mammal Sectional, Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) instructed The Hindu.

Dr. Thakur, the lead creator of the paper, has greater than 100 papers in his title and has been a recipient of a number of distinguished awards, together with the DST Young Scientist (2013), the DST INSPIRE Faculty (2017), the INSA Medal for Young Scientist (2018), and the TULIP LAb Ex Fellow-France (2022). He has additionally served on the Chinese Academy of Sciences as a Visiting Scientist (2015-16).

“For Wildlife Letters, as a journal published in China, we are obligated to follow Chinese maps and use of place names. Our failure not to do so could result in removal of Chinese funding for the journal and create problems for journal staff that are based in China,” Marcel Holyoak, Co-Editor-in-Chief for Wildlife Letters wrote to Dr. Thakur in an e mail dated April 2023. The Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal additionally prompt that the one possibility within the present case is that the issues be corrected or “we are forced to withdraw the manuscript”.

When the scientists accused the journal of questioning the geopolitical boundaries of India, Professor Holyoak wrote again saying that neither he nor the journal takes any place with respect to geopolitical boundaries, however “we are obliged to follow what is expected of the scientists and journal within China”. In October 2023, Dr. Thakur wrote to the journal saying that their resolution to withdraw the journal primarily based on “national regulations concerning the name of specific regions, mentioned in the article, in my view” was “unwarranted”. He additionally stated that he was keen to pursue authorized motion via a global court docket to make sure decision of the matter.

Dr. Thakur stated that he was shocked that there have been Indian scientists on the board of the journal who didn’t assist him on the problem. Dr. Thakur, who specialises in the usage of DNA applied sciences, additionally added that the journal holds the manufacturing home in India, and some Indians employed with the journal’s manufacturing home additionally insisted on the omission of Arunachal Pradesh’s point out from the paper.

“We are happy that our scientist has remained firm on the issue of the territorial integrity of the country. There could be several such incidents that can go unnoticed and would urge the Government of India to come up with an advisory on issues where the territorial integrity of the country is concerned,” ZSI director Dhriti Banerjee stated.

Discovered by Chinese scientists from South Tibet White-Cheeked Macaque (Macaca leucogenys) was later reported by Dr. Mukesh and his crew from Dibang Valley and West Siang area of Arunachal Pradesh on the idea of digital camera trapping and DNA evaluation. In the paper, which they have been pressured to withdraw, the scientists discover two paternal lineage of the White-Cheeked Macaque supporting a hybrid origin of the species with the sinica group of macaques.