DNA barcodes and ethnomedicinal use of Sharpnose guitarfish Glaucostegus granulatus by the locals at Keylong, Lahaul and Spiti, Himachal Pradesh

Ashutosh Singh; Gul Jabin; Bheem Dutt Joshi; Mukesh Thakur; Lalit Kumar Sharma; Kailash Chandra

doi:10.1080/23802359.2019.1698329

DNA barcodes and ethnomedicinal use of Sharpnose guitarfish Glaucostegus granulatus by the locals at Keylong, Lahaul and Spiti, Himachal Pradesh

Mitochondrial DNA B Resour. 2019 Dec 11;5(1):113-114. doi: 10.1080/23802359.2019.1698329.

Authors

Ashutosh Singh¹, Gul Jabin¹, Bheem Dutt Joshi¹, Mukesh Thakur¹, Lalit Kumar Sharma¹, Kailash Chandra¹

Affiliation

¹ Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, West Bengal.

Abstract

Illegal trade of fishes is common and has been in practice since ages for the support of livelihood and as dietary supplements. However, several species are protected in the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 of India and their trade is restricted under CITES. In this article, we report trade of Sharpnose guitarfish (Glaucostegus granulatus) for the ethnomedicinal remedy, identified using DNA barcoding in the Keylong district of Lahaul and Spiti, Himachal Pradesh. This study provides the first DNA barcode of Sharpnose guitarfish. In order to handle wildlife offense cases we emphasize that a large reference database for other fishes in trade is needed.

Keywords: Guitarfish; Lahaul and Spiti; medicinal remedy; threatened marine species; wildlife trade.

Grants and funding

The authors greatly acknowledge the funding support of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change through the NHMS scheme project NMHS/2017-18/LG09/02/476.