{"id":54938,"date":"2025-07-15T16:13:50","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T10:43:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=54938"},"modified":"2025-07-15T16:18:42","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T10:48:42","slug":"rhodis-india-programme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/rhodis-india-programme\/","title":{"rendered":"RhoDIS India Programme"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>RhoDIS India Programme Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A specialised team has initiated the genetic analysis of samples collected from 2,573 rhino horns and will add them to the RhoDIS India DNA data library.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About RhoDIS India Programme<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2016, the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Government of India in partnership with <\/span><b>Wildlife Institute of India<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (WII), the forest departments of <\/span><b>Assam, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and WWF India launched this programme.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>Rhino DNA Index (RhoDIS) System<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is a <\/span><b>wildlife forensics tool<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that was specially developed for investigating <\/span><b>wildlife crime cases.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The programme seeks to <\/span><b>improve the crime investigations<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> scientifically and provide technical support for the scientific management of India\u2019s rhino population.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>protocol standardised<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for the RhoDIS India analysis, <\/span><b>approved by the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, will be followed for creating the DNA profiles from these samples.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">RhODIS uses a DNA indexing system whereby genetic sequences are created to get a signature unique to each individual rhino.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Significance:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It has proven to be a successful tool in aiding crime investigation and strengthening legal presentations.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>What is a Rhino horn?<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is <\/span><b>made of keratin<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is chemically complex and contains large quantities of <\/span><b>sulphur-containing amino acids<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, particularly cysteine, as well as tyrosine, histidine, lysine, and arginine, and the salts calcium carbonate and calcium phosphate.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rhino horns are <\/span><b>similar in structure to horses\u2019 hooves<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, turtle beaks, and cockatoo bills.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Three of the <\/span><b>five rhino species<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> have <\/span><b>two horns<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, whilst the others \u2013 <\/span><b>Greater one-horned rhinos and Javan rhinos <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2013 have only <\/span><b>one horn.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/assam\/genetic-analysis-of-assam-rhino-horn-samples-initiated\/article69800399.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><b>TH<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RhODIS India is a DNA-based database program launched in 2016 to track and protect Indian rhinos by linking seized horns to individual animals for anti-poaching efforts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":55005,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21,1561,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-54938","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-prelims-pointers","9":"tag-rhodis-india-programme","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}