Forensic genetic detectives of Hyderabad crack Tamil Nadu monitor lizard case

The CCMB researchers said that forensic genetic evidence is a powerful tool to secure convictions in wildlife crimes.

Hyderabad: The forensic genetic detectives of Hyderabad have uncovered a wildlife crime involving the mystery of occult and how the gullible can be taken for a ride by poachers. The DNA investigators in Hyderabad received small pieces of plant material for analysis. It turned out that the plant materials were, in reality, the gonads of male Bengal monitor lizard, which was killed by the poachers in Tamil Nadu.

Published as a case study in Springer Nature (September, 2024), the group of researchers from Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), through their DNA analysis, helped investigators from Tamil Nadu to unravel the mystery and prosecute the poachers.

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The poachers harvested the forked penises of monitor lizards and fraudulently sold them to individuals as the roots of a very rare plant Martynia annua, which are used in occult practices by believers. The poachers modified the penises of monitor lizards to resemble the plant roots, (which look like folded hands), and made it even more complex for investigators to make an accurate identification.

The CCMB researchers said that forensic genetic evidence is a powerful tool to secure convictions in wildlife crimes. “The bifurcated hemipenes (gonads) of any of the four species of Monitor lizards found in India are illegally traded under the name ‘Hatha Jodi’ (a plant root from Martynia annua). A rare plant root is misrepresented as a powerful charm capable of bringing property and good fortune to its possessor. As a result, there is a suspected large-scale poaching of monitors in India to fuel the trade of ‘Hatha Jodi’,” the CCMB researchers in the paper said.

Monitor lizards are copiously poached for their meat, which is considered a delicacy and assumed to have medicinal properties. Studies have documented that the products prepared from the monitor lizards are used to treat various diseases, i.e., asthma, haemorrhoids, rheumatism, and arthritis. The genital organs from Monitor lizards are traded in the name of ‘Hatha Jodi’, the root of the Tiger’s Claw plant and used for human welfare, the researchers said.