Government report flags ‘lapses’ in Nagaland bat study

Role of foreign researchers questioned amid row over storage of samples at NCBS, Bengaluru

More than a year after a probe into a filovirus study of bats in Nagaland by the Bangalore-based National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), the government has concluded that there had been “concerning lapses” in the conduct and protocols followed for the study, even as an inter-department row continues over where the bat samples should be stored. The Hindu had first reported in February 2020 on the enquiry being initiated into whether adequate permissions had been sought for the study that had listed two scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology as “co-authors”, and was partially funded by the U.S. Department of Defence through its Defence Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). In 2020, a committee convened by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), which consisted of officials from the Ministries of External Affairs, Defence, Home Affairs, Health, Environment, Law, Departments of Science & Technology, Development of North Eastern Region, and others met to “to streamline processes and avoid such lapses in the future,” a report prepared by the Ministry of Health said. Both the foreign-funding of the study, that cost an estimated ₹1.9 crore, as well as concerns over the storage of the bat samples collected came up for scrutiny.