A proposal of Rs 10 crore is being submitted to the ministry of earth sciences by the Centre for Marine Living Resources and Ecology (CMLRE) under the International Barcode of Life (IBOL) project. V N Sanjeevan, the director of CMLRE told Governance Now that it would be submitted to the ministry in around two weeks.

Under this project DNA barcodes will be given to marine life around the seas in India to create inventories of biodiversity. DNA barcoding is a method that uses a short genetic marker in an organism’s DNA to identify it as belonging to a particular species.

“We are planning to concentrate on six areas and three groups of animals for this project,” said Sanjeevan. The six areas identified in peninsular India are north-west Arabian Sea, south-west Arabian Sea, Lakshadweep Islands, south-east Bay of Bengal, north-east Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Islands.

Sanjeevan said that they are concentrating on marine mammals, algae species and myctophids. Marine mammals have 23 species and the algae species have 47. “Other important things that we are concentrating on are all marine crabs, all fish, prawns and lobsters and also poisonous fish,” added Sanjeevan.

As per the international protocol the programme is to be completed by 2014, said Sanjeevan. “But we are planning for 2015. Though by 2014, we will have a good record of what all is available,” he added.