CAGING RESEARCHERS

WILDLIFE INSTITUTE

- Rahul Noronha

For a reputed research institution known across the world, the Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India (WII) is going through unusually tough times. An autonomous institution under the Union ministry of environment, forests and climate change (MoEFCC), that trains wildlife biologists who undertake research across India, the WII has been facing a funds crunch—with reduced allocation in the Union budget for it and similar institutes—in recent years that has been hampering its functioning. But now comes the deepest cut of all. The MoEFCC has asked the WII to send its reports and studies to the ministry before releasing them elsewhere. The move has academics worried, with some seeing it as a ‘gag order’ that encroaches on WII’s rights, curtailing the independence of its opinion.