Rachunliu to attend world congress on amphibians
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Tamenglong, August 06, 2012:
Zeliangrong lady field biologist Rachunliu G Kamei, who was part of the team that discovered legless amphibians, commonly known as Caecilians, has been selected to speak at the prestigious World Congress of Herpetology, Vancouver, Canada, between August 8 and 14. Around 2000 scientists working on various disciplines on the study of amphibians, reptiles and fishes are expected to attend this year's congress.
World Congress of Herpetology, held after every four to five years, covers three broad disciplines - Herpetology (study of amphibians & reptiles) and Ichthyology (study of fishes).
Rachunliu is one of the three Indians who have been selected to speak at the congress.
She is the only one representing India on Indian amphibian research.
Rachunliu said this is probably the first time that Northeast India and its biodiversity will be presented at a major international science gathering.
She would be presenting a paper titled "Northeast India an overlooked centre of caecilian diversity".
On the importance of the congress to her kind of work, Rachunliu noted that Northeast India has not really got the attention despite being biologically diverse with potentials of revealing hidden biodiversity, particularly, the caecilian fauna which had not received research interest at all previously.
Rachunliu is working with Sathyabhama Das Biju, popularly known as the Frog Man of India, as her research guide and mentor in a world class lab to explore and study the amphibians using the cutting edge technology.